Should he care to ask his roommate about the care and feeding of the big moment, Georgia Bulldogs pitcher Tony Locey certainly could. Roomie has pretty much majored in that subject since the two of them arrived here from the Warner Robins area.
But Locey, who will start for the Bulldogs in Friday’s NCAA regional tournament baseball opener here against Mercer, has sought no such counsel. Really no need. He’s had years to witness Jake Fromm up close and absorb plenty of secondhand attributes.
What better influence than a friend – more than that, a fishing buddy – who has withstood the pressures of a Rose Bowl shootout and excruciatingly taut national and conference championship bouts with Alabama? As Georgia baseball coach Scott Striklin said, “I’m proud of Tony that he kind of gravitated towards (Fromm). I think they’ve helped each other.”
The pitcher and the quarterback, both by way of Houston County High School, have a relationship that is brotherly in all but genetics.
Let Locey count the ways: “We share the same beliefs. From the same hometown. Love the outdoors. Always compete. Always mad at each other. Always getting after each other. Always encouraging each other. There’s not a game of pool or pingpong that we’re not screaming at each other, trying to beat each other.”
It’s the quarterback’s turn to sit back and watch his buddy start a big game now. Since a year ago, when Georgia hosted one of these regionals and was ousted by Duke, the Bulldogs have ached for this redemptive do-over. And it’s Locey’s turn to set tone with his start in this four-team regional.
“We’ve been looking forward to this game ever since we started weight training last July,” he said.
The Bulldogs are that rarity in college baseball – the team defined by its pitching. And its defense. College ball is all about the ringing of the aluminum bat. But Georgia has gotten this far – a No. 4 national seed – largely on the strength of its power pitching arms.
These Bulldogs rank fifth in the nation in ERA (3.08) and second in WHIP (walks and hits per innings pitched, 1.12). They’ve already set the school record for strikeouts with 566 in 59 games.
“We’re always gonna pitch and play defense,” Locey promises.
In his junior season, Locey – 10-2, with a 2.68 ERA – has begun to realize the potential he brought with him from Middle Georgia when he was the state’s top-rated high school pitcher in 2016. He can recount in grim detail his first start at Georgia, when the College of Charleston lit up a cocky kid for seven runs in three innings. He worked out of the bullpen throughout his sophomore season and vowed to gain a foothold in the starting rotation this season. Now he’s the Friday starter – the collegiate version of an ace.
He is a burly righthander – at 6-foot-3, 239 pounds, Locey is built more along the lines of his other roommate, Bulldogs tight end Charlie Woerner – with an attitude. Pair that with a 95-mph fastball, and you have an in-no-way subtle mound presence.
“He pitches angry,” Stricklin said. “He pitches with a lot of intensity, a lot of emotion. When you think about big leaguers, in the best-case scenario, the guys he reminds me of are Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling – big, strong, powerful righthanders who are aggressive. That’s the mentality that he has.”
“I’m always ready to go. I’m a heavy fastball guy, and it’s pretty much: Here it is, see if you can hit it,” Locey said. “I throw my slider whenever to get them off balance and fastball is my main pitch. I love to be aggressive with it.”
Scrawled on the underside of his cap bill are messages both menacing and moving.
There’s a sentiment that he traces to Clemens, one of his boyhood idols: “Pitch to Kill, Not to Wound.”
Next to the name of a former high school classmate ill with kidney disease – Tuesday was her 23rd birthday. Next to a biblical reference from the book of Luke. Next to the initials DBTH (Don’t Believe the Hype).
Yeah, there’s a lot going on under that ball cap.
A communications major, Locey is playing to a strength there. He’s a most obliging communicator, one who speaks his mind. Take, for instance, this unsparing review of Fromm the baseball player, with whom he teamed to win a state baseball championship at Houston County:
“He was a decent baseball player. He’s been out of the game for a while. If he stuck with it, he could possibly DH for us. But I don’t think he’d win a position spot out here, especially at this level.
“The way he’s done it for our football program, and what he’s doing for himself, he’s made the smart move to stick with football. He’s a lot better throwing the football around than swinging the bat.”
Both know enough to stay in their own lanes, hopeful of taking them to the same destination. The college pitcher and quarterback will be on, say, a well-populated farm pond, each dead-set on catching a bigger resident fish than the other, when sometimes they’ll revisit a shared dream.
When they both make it big in their chosen sports, one day soon, won’t it be great? They’ll go in together on some land, they foresee. Build a sanctuary for themselves and their families, a place to hunt and fish and tell lies.
“We talk about our future and what we want to do and the trips we want to take to hunt and fish,” Locey said.
And in that idyllic future, he is asked, might one of them – or both – have a national championship to brag about? If you’re going to dream, go ahead and dream big.
“I think we got a good shot,” Locey said, speaking for the baseball side of the friendship. “This club is very good. This club is very experienced. And we still have a bad taste from last year we want to get rid of.”
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