University of Delaware baseball players have begun to periodically refer to teammate Bryce Greenly as “Shohei.”
It’s a bit of humorous ribbing, but also quite complimentary, appropriate and flattering.
Greenly is among the Blue Hens’ best hitters. And now he has become their best pitcher.
That’s a rarity in NCAA Division I baseball. It mirrors what Shohei Ohtani, the 28-year-old Japanese pitcher/DH, has done while being American League Rookie of the Year in 2018 and MVP in 2021 with the Los Angeles Angels and star of the recent World Baseball Classic.
“It’s fun,” Greenly, a 2018 Milford High grad, said after Delaware’s 9-3 win over Saint Joseph’s on Tuesday in the Liberty Bell Classic quarterfinals at Hannah Stadium. “Most players have to choose one or the other and I’m lucky enough to do both.
“It’s something I pride myself on, being pretty good at both.”
Greenly has both batted and pitched for the Blue Hens since transferring from Virginia, where he red-shirted as a freshman in 2019.
But he missed the 2021 season after requiring reconstructive elbow surgery in October 2020 and feels he’s finally been able to reach his potential this season. Now Greenly has become more of an offensive force while also becoming the Blue Hens’ most reliable pitcher.
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“We just decided early on this fall it’s gonna be best for him and for us to just DH him and then start him once a week,” said Greg Mamula, who was hired last May as Delaware baseball coach after the retirement of Jim Sherman. “That’s what we’ve done and it’s allowed him to stay fresh and stay healthy.”
Last season, Greenly started 49 of the Blue Hens’ 51 games in right field and batted .316. His five triples led the CAA and were 25th nationally in Division I. Greenly also stole 16 bases.
He made just seven mound appearances covering 10 innings but did log three saves and a 1.80 ERA while whiffing 11.
It was “still uncomfortable” to pitch, Greenly said, of last spring, but by summer he felt back to his old self.
“I think I hit 90 [mph] like one time last year,” he said. “Then I go play summer ball in Annapolis and I was up to 95. It was also I was playing right field on top of trying to pitch first year back from Tommy John [surgery] so everything kind of added up. Now we’re good.”
This year, as the DH, Greenly’s .359 average ranks second on the team. His six home runs are four more than he had his first two UD seasons combined. Greenly was tied for third in the Colonial Athletic Association in total bases (59) and fourth in slugging (.670) entering Tuesday.
“The ball just jumps off his bat with a high exit velocity,” Mamula said. “The development he’s made this year he wasn’t able to do before, which is a tribute to Bryce, is he’s been able to get the ball in the air more often.”
Low line drives that were singles last year now might sail over the fence.
Greenly has also become the most effective pitcher on Delaware’s staff, which took an 8.10 ERA – ninth among the CAA’s 11 teams – into Tuesday’s game. In six starts, he has a 3.18 ERA over 17 innings.
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Greenly was twice a second-team All-State outfielder at Milford and batted .485 as a senior in 2018. He was recruited to Virginia as an outfielder but the desire to also pitch, which wasn’t likely there, sparked his transfer to Delaware.
“That was frustrating because I knew I could do it pretty well,” he said. “… They’re a great team. The coaches were awesome and they helped me get here. There was a better opportunity here.”
Greenly made an immediate impact as a Delaware redshirt freshman in 2020, playing the outfield and batting .296 but also striking out 15 in 9⅓ relief innings, winning one game and logging a team-best 0.96 ERA.
hat season was cut short after 15 games with the mid-March onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Greenly then hurt his elbow in summer ball and missed the 2021 season after his surgery.
“His fastball does two things well,” Mamula said. “It’s downhill. He’s got good angle on it because he has a high release. At the same time, it also has a high spin rate so it plays like it almost has a little bit of rise to it to the hitter.”
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That’s complemented, Mamula added, by an “old-school 12-to-6 curveball” that Greenly also throws with some velocity.
Hitters do foul off a lot of those fastballs, swinging above or beneath them, adding to Greenly’s pitch count. That’s part of the reason he has only worked more than 3 2/3 innings once and is unlikely to throw more than 75 pitches in a game, Mamula said.
He’ll be the first-game starter when Charleston visits for a CAA three-game series starting Friday.
“He has certainly had the most success and given us a chance to win,” Mamula said.
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