The National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) released their national players of the month award on Tuesday, and it featured a familiar name.
Junior right-hander Brady Feigl was awarded with the distinction of being named one of two players of the month. Ironically enough, and fittingly just to flex and show how deep this pitching staff is, Ryan Rolison nor Dallas Woolfolk won the award. The Chesterfield, Mo. native has been lights out this season and has almost overshadowed the aforementioned Rolo and the Assassin’s Creed that is the Rebel bullpen.
Brett Kinneman of @NCStateBaseball and Brady Feigl of @OleMissBSB are our February Division I National Players of the Month https://t.co/NW1ud5jcVP
— NCBWA (@NCBWA) March 13, 2018
As the Rebels sit at 15-1 heading into conference play this weekend against the Tennessee Volunteers, Ole Miss ranks 10th nationally in team earned run average (2.27) and leads the country with a 4.15 strikeout-to-walk ratio. However, nobody is pitching as well as Brady Feigl. During the month of February, he went 2-0, allowing only one unearned run and striking out 12 in 12 innings pitched.
Now with four starts under his belt, Fiegl leads the nation in wins with a perfect 4-0 record, striking out 25 batters while only handing out two walks.
His strikeout-to-walk ratio is good for 3rd in the SEC, but while his .911 WHIP leads the team, it only ranks 12th in the conference. And his earned run average of 1.03 also ranks 3rd amongst eligible SEC pitchers.
Virtually nobody has been able to square up anything on Feigl this season as he’s given up the fewest extra base hits of anyone in the starting rotation. On a staff featuring potential lottery pick Ryan Rolison, second-year weekend veteran James MacArthur, and flamethrower Will Etheridge, we think that’s pretty good.
If the Rebels are going to make a run at a top seed in Hoover, hosting a regional, and potentially landing a national seed, they need Torch to be on his best for more than just the first month of the season. If this trend continues, there will be more hardware for Feigl coming, and more importantly, more wins for Mike Bianco’s club.