Every pitcher has a method to their madness.
For Middle Tennessee right-hander Gavin King, each outing on the mound begins with something small, almost unnoticeable to those not watching closely.
Amid the chaos of a 13-inning midweek contest against Belmont University, King stepped behind the bump, searching.
A rock, a piece of dirt, anything to lock onto.
“Before every inning, I find something on the mound — a piece of dirt, a rock — and I focus on it until my body calms down and I can track my breathing,” King said.
That small routine set the foundation for King’s best outing of the season, when the Blue Raiders needed it most.
When King was called out of the bullpen in the top of the 10th inning, the game’s momentum had swung in favor of MTSU. Middle Tennessee clawed back from a 7-1 deficit on a combination of one-run pitching by Bryant Beranek and an offensive explosion in the later innings.
However, as the contest progressed into the later innings, the margin for error was gone.
With every pitch amplified, King struck out eight of 12 batters faced, including three straight strikeouts in the bottom of the 11th.
“I don’t really shake, but I saw early that guys weren’t picking up the breaking ball really well,” King said. “So I started throwing at a very, very high clip. And I felt like I used that to put my fastball in a great spot to punch guys out.”
King’s first season with the Blue Raiders has been defined by flashes of brilliance mixed with inconsistency, including two five-strikeout outings and a six-run outing against Missouri State University earlier in the year.
Against the Bruins, the Nashville, Tennessee, native had an efficient outing, throwing 42 pitches with 32 strikes. Alongside filling the zone, King prevented traffic by not allowing a single walk to a Bruins’ offense that averages four walks per game.
With three scoreless innings already on the board, King’s command on the bump provided the Blue Raiders’ offense a chance to push the go-ahead run across the plate. In the top of the 13th inning, Dean O’Neill stepped into the batter’s box and launched a ball 428 feet off the center-field wall, plating two runs to give MTSU a 10-8 lead.
With momentum swung in Middle Tennessee’s favor, as King had done all night in his hometown, the Liberty Creek High School graduate struck out two straight batters before allowing a single that put one runner on for the Bruins.
Despite the hit, King quickly bounced back as a liner picked up at shortstop and tossed to second base shut down any chance of a Belmont rally.
“King stepped up and made it able for us to win that game,” MTSU second baseman Cooper Clapp said. “It was huge.”
With a win over the Bruins, Middle Tennessee returns home for a weekend series against the University of Delaware (11-26, 1-14 CUSA). The Blue Hens enter the series on a high note following a 15-8 rivalry win over Delaware State University.
Conference USA play has not been kind to Delaware, with the only win coming in a tight 5-4 victory over Dallas Baptist University in the series opener before dropping two straight to the Patriots. Delaware has shared road struggles with the Blue Raiders, with UD posting a 1-15 record outside of the “First State.”
On the contrary, MTSU has been exceptional at home, posting a 16-7 record. With the last month and a half of the season remaining, every series becomes critical for CUSA tournament seeding, especially as the Blue Raiders eye their first postseason berth since 2023.
“Getting back to the simple things and that belief in ourselves, when we all have that belief in ourselves and all play with a smile on our face and play loose, that’s when we’re at our best,” O’Neill said.
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