Mental execution and short game: Brian Curley’s path to Georgia baseball’s ace

Curley introduced that swagger to SEC baseball fans before conference play began. He went viral for a ninth-inning stunt he pulled in Georgia’s fifth game of the year at Kennesaw State.

Curley, looking to earn his first save as a Bulldog, faced the potential game-winning run at the plate with an 0-2 count, two outs and runners on first and second.

When most pitchers would be locked in on the plate, Curley got set, turned his head and wagged his tongue at the runner on second base. He then whipped his head back toward the plate and froze the hitter with a slider. Strike three.

Curley describes his mental mixture of confidence and focus as visualization. It’s an art that he started perfecting as a child in a completely different sport.

Curley credited golfing with his father — nearly a scratch golfer himself — for his ability to execute mentally before making a play.

“When he was teaching me how to putt, he was like, ‘Before you putt, I want you to have an image of the putt dropping into the cup,’” Curley said. “‘Like, I want you to be able to hear it in your mind. So before you hit the putt, close your eyes and completely experience the whole putt from start to finish, and then just go out and do it.’

“And then you just flush the result. That’s the exact thing that I do for pitching.”

Curley said his mental visualization is more like a GIF than an image.

“To effectively visualize, you have to be able to turn it into something that you can execute,” he said. “So it’s like something that’s vivid, if that makes sense. It’s more vivid than just a picture. You have to use multiple senses.”

Curley doesn’t only visualize when he’s on the mound. The junior right-hander sees the big picture, too, which was part of the reason he declined his 16th round selection in last year’s MLB draft to come to Georgia.

An NCBWA Preseason All-American, Curley had proved his talent in two seasons at VCU. But he wanted more development, and despite being the highest-rated pitcher in Georgia’s transfer class, he only wanted a shot at a starting spot.

That was all UGA coach Wes Johnson would promise Curley, but a chance to compete was all he needed to commit.

“Wes was like, ‘We’ve got seven or eight guys who are going to be able to start. Go get it,’” Curley said in February. “That’s not guaranteed, and that doesn’t bother me one bit. I like to start, I like throwing out of the pen, I like closing.”

He might enjoy the challenge of versatility, but Curley admitted he wanted to start long before the season did.

“I remember I was picturing throwing the first pitch of the Friday game at Texas in August,” Curley said. “So it’s been going back that far.”

Curley didn’t start the season in the rotation, but he didn’t have to wait long. UGA’s starting unit was one of the worst in the SEC early on while back-end relievers like Curley dominated.

Curley made his first SEC start in game two of Georgia’s second conference series. He held Florida to just two hits with five strikeouts and no earned runs.

Curley didn’t pitch the Friday night game at Texas, but he did hold the Longhorns to two earned runs in five innings in game two. It was the week after, when Georgia hosted No. 1 Arkansas, that Johnson first pitched Curley as the ace.

Curley has allowed just 12 earned runs in his six SEC starts, good for a 3.48 ERA.

Curley still golfs to keep his mental visualization sharp when he’s off the mound. Between finals season and being an SEC ace, Curley hasn’t had much down time recently.

But summer plans are already in place to venture beyond the local Athens courses to North Georgia.

He’ll still be roughly 600 miles from his hometown of Midlothian, Virginia. But Curley will keep tinkering with the same mentality his dad taught him on the putting green, the same mentality Johnson helps him sharpen on the mound.

“I grew up being coached by my dad, which was obviously pretty open, just because he’s my father, and he gives me the opportunity,” Curley said. “And Wes, for me, has done a really good job of continuing that type of relationship where it’s a mentor rather than barking orders.”

Self-belief is a Wes Johnson staple, something he harped on constantly to establish his culture last season. The longtime pitching coach knows the importance of developing a pitcher mentally along with mechanics.

“First, you’ve got to think you can be good, right?” Johnson said. “Then you’ve got to go practice at whatever you think you can be good at, and you’ve got to start believing, and then you’ve got to see it.”

Curley has been seeing and believing for a lot longer than he’s been able to show it. There is plenty more to visualize as the Bulldogs are positioned for a strong SEC finish and a run at the program’s first College World Series appearance since 2008.

For now, though, Curley’s visualization is all about Friday night at Missouri’s Taylor Stadium.

“Fastballs at the top of the zone, sliders in the down and out,” Curley said. “So that’s all I try to visualize anyway. No different.”