Rider’s big-game pitcher Doelling has the competitive fire
LAWRENCEVILLE » Frank Doelling wants the ball.
This has been the case for as long as he can remember and certainly hasn’t changed now that he is a starting pitcher for a Rider University baseball program trying to repeat as Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference champion.
“I love to pitch in the big game,” Doelling said. “Every week is a big conference game now.”
A 6-foot, 185-pound senior southpaw, Doelling is pitching like an ace at the right time as the Broncs jockey for position amongst a jumbled pack of teams. Over his last three starts — all against MAAC opposition — he has allowed one earned run in 21.1 innings.
The key is confidence, and his is at an all-time high.
“When I’m confident out there, I feel like I can throw the ball wherever I want it,” Doelling said. “Earlier in the year, I wasn’t able to do that, but now I’m starting to see the ball go where I want it and guys are swinging through my pitches.”
Those who know him best aren’t surprised.
“He’s a competitor on the mound and goes at (hitters),” head coach Dr. Barry Davis said. “When he’s on and has his game, we’re tough to beat.”
Doelling was a star at tiny Riverside High in Burlington County where he put his name atop the record book in just about every pitching category. After one season at Rowan College at Burlington, he followed his JUCO coach Mike Petrowski to Rider when Davis hired him to be the pitching coach.
Doelling went 5-3 with a 3.30 ERA in 10 starts (57.1 innings) as a junior during the pandemic-impacted 2021 season in which the MAAC limited its schools to league games only, but he finished the spring with a quality start against Alabama in the NCAA Tournament Regional.
You could tell then that he had some moxie.
“I don’t panic with him,” Petrowski said. “He’s a biggame pitcher. He gets better as the game goes, the year goes. When things start heating up some guys will back down. He’s the other way, he’ll step up.”
This season actually started slowly. Doelling said his mechanics felt off and he got hit around pretty hard in March non-league games against Delaware and East Tennessee State. That, in large part, has contributed to numbers that on the surface — he’s 3-4 with a 4.27 ERA and .300 batting average against — don’t look all that impressive.
His MAAC performances, however, tell a different story. In four conference starts, Doelling is 2-0 with a 1.03 ERA and .80 WHIP in 26.1 innings. He has 27 strikeouts against four walks and is limiting opponents to a .185 batting average. Rider is 3-1 in the league games he’s started, with that lone loss a contest in which he got a no decision despite eight innings of one-run ball at Niagara.
In his most recent start against Manhattan, he tossed seven scoreless innings and struck out a career-high 10 batters.
“We want to get as high of a seed as we possibly can to put us in the best position to get back to the MAAC championship and win it all,” Doelling said. “It gives me that extra adrenaline rush that I need and I’m a big pitcher on adrenaline. Conference games mean a lot and I like pitching in the big games.”
He’s also evolved as a pitcher since arriving in Lawrenceville, adding a change-up to his repertoire of 4-seam fastball, 2-seam fastball and slider, something he needs to have in order to be an effective starter at the Division I level and beyond.
“I’ve always been a fastball-slider guy, but pitching at the Division I level, I’ve had to learn to get that third pitch as a starter,” Doelling said. “I don’t need my change-up to be an outpitch so much as being able to throw it here and there … and certain hitters who have a tendency to chase change-ups, I can throw it to them.”
Doelling sits between 8890 miles per hour with his fastball, and while not overpowering is still effective as a left-hander when mixed with excellent spin rate on his breaking pitches.
“He’s really good when the last five feet on his fastball are taking off,” Petrowski said. “The velocity is 88-89 on every pitch, 90 sometimes. Early in the year, he was 86-87 and if you get a little bit better extension, he stays in his upper half a little longer, he’s pretty darn good.”
Petrowski believes Doelling can be a pro.
“When he came here his first year, he was hesitant. Is this going to be the same as JUCO?” Petrowski said. “He started dominating early on and knew he belonged. His spin rate is really good on his curve, it’s like major league spin rate, his fastball is the same thing. He’s just starting to get his changeup down now. If he gets his change-up down, he’s going to be a pro.”
Doelling will likely make four more regular-season starts as Rider tries to secure a spot at the MAAC
Tournament. The top six teams qualify for the tournament at Clover Field in Pomona, N.Y., and the Broncs (20-17 overall, 8-4 MAAC) are in decent shape to give themselves the opportunity to defend their title.
“Last year we didn’t start playing our best baseball until the MAAC Tournament,” Doelling said. “The home stretch is coming along now. We have Monmouth coming up, Canisius, Marist — teams that are probably going to be in the
tournament. It’s going to be a really good test for us to see where we are at.”
The ball, undoubtedly, will be in Doelling’s hand.
“I expect the same the rest of the year,” Petrowski said. “He’s the guy we expect to win every game.”