By Nicholas Gallo, Staff Writer
As the St. Bonaventure men’s baseball team returns from Port Charlotte, Florida, freshman Braydon Nelson, a right-handed pitcher, put on a show for his first two starts with the Bonnies. Nelson went 18 scoreless innings with 15 strikeouts and two walks, one of them being intentional.
These numbers are the reason why he has earned Atlantic 10 Conference Rookie of the Week.
From Brecksville, Ohio, the 6-foot 4-inch, 215-pound pitcher played high school ball at Saint Ignatius High School in Cleveland, Ohio. Nelson said he was hooked on baseball at the age of five.
“I started with t-ball, but I didn’t really start pitching until high school,” Nelson said. “I was a catcher growing up, but when I got taller, my knees started to affect me, and my high school coaches liked me as a pitcher when my arm was fresh.”
Nelson started to gain confidence in his abilities to take baseball to the next level.
“Once I started playing for my travel team, that is when I realized I could play Division I baseball,” Nelson said. “I had a lot of fun playing as I got to travel to many interesting places, such as Georgia, when I was 17. It was a great time and there was an enormous amount of competition.”
Head coach Larry Sudbrook is entering his 33rd season with the Bonnies and is impressed with what he sees. A former Bonnies player and captain for Sudbrook named Johnny Whelan called his former coach to let him know about the talent Nelson has.
“He calls us and says, ‘Coach we got a kid. We think he’s really good, and we don’t know why someone else hasn’t gotten involved with him,’” Sudbrook said. “Braydon was under the radar due to his high school’s number-one pitcher, who committed to the University of Louisville his sophomore year, and got a lot of acclaim. The assistant coach calls us and says ‘Coach I think this kid can be as good or even better than the other guy.’”
Sudbrook said the numbers that Nelson has put up in his first two starts have been crazy. He compared Nelson’s game to Cleveland Indians starting pitcher Corey Kluber. Because of his demeanor, that is why coach Sudbrook relates to Nelson’s game to Kluber’s.
“He doesn’t get excited if he strikes out a side. He doesn’t get down if he gives up a double in the gap to the lead-off man,” Sudbrook said. “He is very calm and composed, and we had no idea what we could get out of him in game one because most freshman are really nervous, and he may have been, but you never notice it during the game.”
Off the field, Nelson is a regular mathematics major student who is looking to obtain a business minor next semester for the fall of 2018. Even off the field, Sudbrook sees the hard work and dedication Nelson puts in his studies.
“This past fall, Braydon was able to obtain a 4.0 GPA,” Sudbrook said. “This is a kid where when he is told to do something, he’s got it, runs with it and doesn’t need a whole lot of guidance.”
Being a big, tall, lengthy and long-armed kid makes Nelson look like he’s just flipping the ball in the strike zone and making it look effortless according to Sudbrook
“He would be hitting in the mid 80’s from 87, 88, 89 mile an hour pitches,” Sudbrook said. “We believe also that his velocity will get higher as he gets older with time in the weight room and working on his pitches.”
The hardest part from transitioning from high school to college baseball for Nelson was going from pitching to seven inning games to nine inning games. He said it wears on you mentally, and you get hunger sometimes during games now.
To help with Nelson’s transition from high school to Bona’s, two players, who went to the same high school as Nelson, have helped him along the way. Junior outfielder, Sam Fuller and sophomore right hand pitcher, Murphy O’Brien, have helped Nelson along the way for his first two starts.
Nelson’s former high school baseball coach, Brad Ganor, spoke about how Nelson blossomed from coming in as a catcher to becoming a clutch performer for their team.
“As Braydon developed into his role on our team, he really became a clutch performer for us when we needed him,” Ganor said. “We knew that he was a frontline guy and we always had a chance to win when we had him on the mound.”
Ganor believes that with Nelson’s last two performances, he has created trust with the older guys on the team. He said if he had any advice to give to him, it would be to keep doing what he’s doing, and to keep giving him support because he will start to understand the game better and be successful.
“Braydon Nelson is a great pitcher,” Banor said. “I am pleasantly surprised in what he has achieved so far and we would like to keep using our baseball program as a pipeline for St. Bonaventure University.”
For the rest of this season, Nelson wants to keep up the consistency he has been having these past two games. He said he wants to keep being in shape, keep throwing his pitches the way he has been throwing them, and try to keep up the pace he has set for himself.
“In terms of end of season goals, I would like to see our team go to A10 tournament,” Nelson said. “If I’m able to keep up what I have been doing on the mound, I would fully want and believe would like to be awarded A10 rookie of the year.”
Assistant coach entering his fifth season with the team, B.J. Salerno believes that Nelson has huge potential as a player. Despite only starting two games and a long season ahead, Salerno envisions vision, him being a daily starter.
“With the start that he has you can see being a conference pitcher every weekend, possibly a number one guy when he becomes a sophomore, junior or senior,” Salerno said. “If he keeps getting stronger in the weight room, his velocity picks up, he could possibly be a draft pick too and barring injury and keeping up the way he is playing he could absolutely win A10 Rookie of the Year.”
The baseball team will be back in action this weekend as they the team starts off a series against James Madison University, starting Friday, March 9 at 3:05 p.m. in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Both coach Sudbrook and Salerno are still working out lineups but know that Nelson will be starting one of those games.
“The only thing I know for sure is that Nelson will be one of our three starters this weekend.”
