College baseball: Louisville pitcher Kade McClure of Mentor eyes big junior season – News-Herald.com

Kade McClure was on the edge of his seat, waiting for the opportunity of a lifetime.

Then, the improbable happened. The opportunity vanished.

Now, with the Louisville baseball team about a month away from starting its 2017 season, the Mentor graduate is embarking on a coveted role he hopes to parlay into the chance of a lifetime.

First things first. Flashing back to last June, the Cardinals, a favorite to get to Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series, were on the brink of a forcing a Game 3 in a Super Regional series vs. UC-Santa Barbara.

A Game 2 win would have created a winner-to-Omaha scenario. McClure was penciled in to start that game.

In that Game 2, Louisville led, 3-0, in the bottom of the ninth. The Gauchos loaded the bases with Sam Cohen at the plate.

“Backup catcher with 26 at-bats that season,” said McClure. “It was crazy.”

Cohen smacked a grand slam to clinch the win and send the No. 2-seeded Cardinals home.

Massive departures in the form of Louisville draft picks has the team with a different look in 2017, and McClure is one of those different looks.

As a mid-week starter as a sophomore in 2016, he racked up impressive stats en route to earning All-America honors.

He went 12-0 and was a first-team pick by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. He had an ERA of 2.54 with 77 strikeouts in 78 innings pitched. Batters hit just .179 against him.

As much as he appreciated the honor, McClure said he knows those numbers were not against the best the ACC has to offer. As the team’s mid-week starter, McClure faced nonconference opponents, but did solid work against SEC and Big Ten opponents.

He earned wins over No. 7 Vanderbilt and No. 9 Kentucky, and another vs. Indiana.

His best outing might have been a prelude. In the team’s ACC tournament opener, McClure became the nation’s second 12-game winner in a victory over Wake Forest. He struck out a career-high 11 in six innings.

Going face to face with ACC opponents is where McClure wants to be, and he will get that chance in 2017.

With national player of the year candidate and top draft prospect Brendan McKay the team’s No. 1 starter, McClure is now the Cardinals’ No. 2, meaning he will go just about every Saturday, most of the time vs. ACC opposition.

“I need to be on my A game every weekend,” said McClure, 13-1 in his Louisville career.

That’s because a lot is riding on this season for McClure.

Not only are hopes high again for the Cardinals (preseason No. 6 ranking), expectations for McClure are two-fold.

He was recently named a preseason third-team All-America pick by Perfect Game. That success has paved the way to attention from Major League Baseball scouts.

In Baseball America’s recent top 100 college draft prospects, McClure was ranked No. 42.

If that ranking held true for the June draft, McClure would be a second-round pick,

“My initial goal is to go between 75 and 100 (overall), and I think that’s where I’m at right now,” said McClure. “I think with a good year, and continuing to grow physically and mentally from a baseball standpoint, I might get in the 50-to-75 range. But I’ve yet to throw a pitch this season.”

At 6-foot-7, 235 pounds, McClure’s frame is ideal for a starting pitcher. His fastball is in the low 90s, and he continues to develop a change-up, a pitch he never threw in high school.

McClure was hopeful he would be drafted as a high school senior — “just to hear my name called” — but said he would not have been ready to be a professional.

“I’m so much more a student of a game,” said McClure. “I just didn’t approach hitters from a legitimate standpoint (in high school).”

Junior seasons for college baseball players are always important. Players in college can’t be drafted until their third year. So it’s understandable the excitement that’s inside for McClure six months down the road, even with a full season in front of him.

“There’s still so much ahead before I can think about those things,” he said.