Wolfpack said:
Welcome Arkansas fans! Nice to have you.
Let's cut through the crap: what are your genuine thoughts on Kopps usage?
I've been a bit concerned about it, but there are some different factors in play with Kopps than your normal college pitcher.
1) He's 24 years old, he is physically more mature
2) He has had TJ surgery already
3) The pitches he throws are not high-stress pitches on the arm. While he does have a 90-93mph fastball, he doesn't throw it much.
4) He drinks a lot of beet juice (he has said has helped him recover)
During the 3rd regional game against Nebraska, you could see him actually getting strong the deeper into the game he went.
Watch DVH's post-game presser where he said the following:
"But obviously what a clutch performance by Kevin Kopps," Van Horn said. "I mean he just kept fighting for us. I felt like he got better as the game went on. Coach would talk to him pretty much every inning, down in the tunnel they would discuss it. We thought we'd let him go to the seventh. He wouldn't let us take him out. He had a quick inning. He comes back in the eighth and we were like, 'OK, we're going to take him out' and we would probably bring (Patrick) Wicklander in for the ninth. We scored runs and Kevin said, 'I'm going back out.' And what an incredible, incredible college pitcher."
Kopps threw 185 pitches during the Fayetteville Regional.
"It's pretty incredible," Van Horn said. "I did a little research on some of this stuff. I looked at Florida's reliever in '18 that had 37 appearances. I think Kevin has 31 now. Kevin has more innings, but I kind of compared him to that a little bit. The difference is that Kevin's 24 and that individual was 21. I talked with coach about it, just making sure we're doing the right thing. Kevin's like, 'You're doing the right thing. I'm fine. Give me the ball.' He's got a great arm action it's short, quick, a strike-throwing machine. I don't know. The kid's a warrior. He wouldn't let us take him out of the game. Yeah, I know that we have the final call there, but man, this is a team. They want Kevin on the mound and Kevin wants to be on the mound."
Kopps had no intentions of coming out of the game. He wanted to pitch the ninth inning and obviously he got his wish.
"They just asked me if I'm going to good, how I'm feeling?," Kopps said. "And I'd say, 'Yep, I do feel good.' I don't know. I just felt, good excited about the game. I was ready to finish it. They trust me and I was just ready to go.""