Strikeouts may be sexy, but Chase Pullen finds quick outs even more appealing.
And that comes from constantly pitching to contact.
“My game plan mostly is to try and let the hitters hit my pitch and get weak outs,” the Allentown High junior said. “We had a really good defense behind me. Especially at the end of the season and the bigger games. So it’s just getting ahead in counts and not walking people, just pounding the zone and seeing what happens. I think that was a really good game plan this year.”
Redbirds coach Brian Nice loves that mindset, noting that it allowed Pullen to stay in his games to the end or near the end.
“He’s not an overpowering guy,” Nice said. “What he does really well is get quick outs. I guess opposing hitters kind of think of him as a comfortable at-bat because he’s not a physically imposing kid, but he’s able to locate his pitches and throw three pitches any time he wants for strikes.
“So he gets a lot of quick outs early in the count. Which is a more effective way to pitch as far as I’m concerned because he can go deeper into games without exerting his pitch count.”
Pullen did exactly that this past season as he helped Allentown to 21-9 record and berth in the NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III finals.
The righthander went 5-1 with a 1.32 ERA. He had 48 strikeouts in 58-1/3 innings, walked only 11 and gave up 44 hits for a 0.94 WHIP. Because of those quick outs, Pullen went at least five innings in all nine starts. He reached six in four starts and seven in four of his final five outings of the season.
Pullen ranked third in the Colonial Valley Conference in ERA, fifth in innings pitched and WHIP, and sixth in walks per seven innings (1.32).
“I don’t think he ever touched 100 pitches (95 was his high),” Nice said. “He was so efficient, he was in the strike zone. He would get five or six innings with seven or eight pitches. He was incredible to watch.
“He’s not a scary at-bat, no disrespect to Chase. But other teams don’t barrel up at all. They hit .200 against him. He’s not a guy that’s gonna strikeout 10 guys per game but that plays to his benefit because it lets him go deeper.”
The hurler credited pitching coach Craig Helfgott for calling his games and catcher Jason Villani for being easy to throw too.
“We were on the same page, so that was really helpful,” said Pullen, who throws a fastball, curveball and slider, and is developing a change-up.
Despite not hitting high on the radar gun, the ability to locate his fastball on either side of the plate has been huge.
“If you can throw a fastball to the inside corner to a high school hitter you’re gonna get a lot of guys out,” Nice said. “A lot of high school pitchers cannot do that, are afraid to do that, or are not comfortable doing that. But Chase isn’t that kid. He can locate his fastball anywhere he wants at any time he wants.
“If he can command three pitches for strikes next year like he did this year, and pick up his velocity a little bit, he’s gonna be tremendous for us. We talked to him about getting a little bigger, a little stronger and putting a few more miles per hour on his fastball but that’s part of the normal high school development that’s just gonna happen by him getting physically stronger.”
Pullen has no problem hitting the weights. Last off-season he trained at Thunder N Lightning performance in Hamilton, doing weights and working on agility. He also went to The Yard in Pennington and did some throwing in order to stay sharp.
“The weight training definitely helps with the velocity as well as being able to get into my legs more,” Pullen said. “I can go deeper in the games too. I don’t get fatigued. I’m a little stronger, and I can push to that seventh inning.”
Pullen said he has been playing baseball for as long as he can walk, starting in T-ball, moving to little league and playing travel with the Arsenal for most of career. This year the brunt of that team formed Main Street Baseball, based down the shore, and the roster includes Redbird junior pitchers Jack Loughlin (2-2, 1.83 ERA) and RJ Davis (2-2, 2.10).
They helped comprise a strong staff along with sophomores JJ Biuso (4-1, 2.07 ERA) and Matt Laurinaitis (2-0, 2.86), as Allentown finished with a sterling 2.35 earned run average. Loughlin and Pullen were One and One A where the starters were concerned.
“We challenged a lot of our pitchers back in September,” Nice said. “We knew we had a lot of arms, we just needed someone to be ‘The Arm.’ Chase certainly stepped up for us, took that responsibility very seriously and earned that responsibility.
“Early in the year he was a co-number one with Loughlin and, through no fault of Loughlin, throughout the year Chase earned that number one status. He pitched every big game come tournament time for us.”
The tone was set in his first start of the season when Pullen pitched a six-inning no-hitter against Nottingham, and things just took off from there.
By mid-May, he was peaking just in time for post-season.
Pullen beat West Windsor-Plainsboro North in the CVC Tournament’s first-round and was the hard-luck loser in a 2-1, eight-inning semifinal loss to Steinert despite allowing just six hits and no walks in 7-1/3 innings. In the CJ III tournament, he beat Spotswood in the opener and Wall in the semifinals, allowing a total of 10 hits and three runs in 13 innings.
As often happens, having a strong core of pitchers helped them drive each other to improved performances.
“Jack was a great pitcher this year for us,” Pullen said. “We were doing a lot of stuff together. He’s someone that pushes me to be better and the same with RJ Davis. He was one of our go-to guys, both of them pushed me to be the best I could be and were great teammates as well.”
Pullen has showed steady improvement in high school. As a freshman he threw 14 innings with a 4.00 ERA, followed by a sophomore season of 33 innings pitched and a 3.18 ERA.
“He’s really taken a big jump each year,” Nice said. “All the work he put in in the off-season you could just see he knew he was gonna get guys out this year.
“You can tell just from his demeanor on the mound he was so much more confident in his ability this year. Having had two years of varsity experience was part of it, and part of it was he wanted to show he was the guy. He turned out to be the guy on a great pitching staff.”
This summer, Pullen and Laurinaitis will be the lone Redbirds playing legion ball for Allentown. He figures on playing travel on weekends and legion during the week, and is hoping to work on his hitting more for both teams.
With Max Kleinz manning second base and hitting .330, Pullen had little opportunity to play the field.
“Max is graduating this year and going to Stockton, so hopefully I’ll get an opportunity to play middle infield along with being on the mound,” Pullen said. “So far I’ve only be pitching. But I hope to be a two-way player next year.
“I’m gonna definitely hit for travel and I’m gonna try to hit for legion as well. I’m hitting and playing mostly infield for travel this year. I think that’s good thing. I’ll pitch here and there but I threw almost 60 innings for Allentown. It might not be a bad thing to just play second base and let the arm rest a little bit.”
Pullen loves pitching because enjoys controlling the game. He’s got pretty good control of the classroom as well, sporting a 3.6 grade point average this year while also performing community service for Allentown’s Leo Club.
College baseball is on Pullen’s radar and while his fastball is not eye-popping, Nice feels he has a shot.
“He will get looks,” the coach said. “Unfortunately velocity is things guys are looking for at the next level. But they’re still looking for somebody to get guys out. A lot of guys can throw 99 and can’t get anyone out. You have a kid who can throw a complete game on 85 pitches, and that’s big. He knows how to pitch. He’s not a thrower, he’s a pitcher.”
A darn good pitcher who would rather get three quick groundballs each inning than strike out the side.
