BV Bombers defeat Seguin River Monsters 6-2

Walker set the single-season record for strikeouts in the Texas Collegiate League during a stunning seven-inning shutout in the Bombers’ 6-2 victory over the Seguin River Monsters.

Walker struck out nine batters, bringing his season total to 72, breaking the 21-year-old record of 70 strikeouts, set in 2022 by Acadiana’s John Gray.

The announcer after the third inning told the crowd that Walker needed six strikeouts to tie the record. It didn’t throw the left-handed pitcher any jinx, as he struck out two in the fourth inning, threw the side in the fifth and struck out Ryder Hernandez to lead off the sixth inning to tie the record.

Walker was given the record by Seguin’s Adam Peavy, who saw a dandy slider. Peavy and the rest of the league have seen Walker go from a relative unknown in the wood-bat league record books.

“This record means so much to me because I’m supposed to be pitching this spring and I’m supposed to be done with my subpar college career,” Walker said. “I sat down with our coaches and decided to bet on myself and continue to develop this spring and redshirt and work through that and come back this summer and pitch.”

It didn’t seem like much of a gamble either way. Walker, who played for Incarnate Word in 2021 before transferring to UH, had thrown just 28 innings in 18 appearances over three years.

“Early in my college career, I wasn’t that great of an athlete,” said Walker, a two-time all-district player at 5-foot-10, 163 pounds for Class 6A Jersey Village. “I wasn’t that flashy of a player and so I struggled with injuries and really just not having that much talent and just working my way through it.”

Walker worked behind the scenes this spring with UH pitching coach Sean Kenny and former UH standout and veteran Major League pitcher Woody Williams, who is the program’s director of pitching strategy and development.

“Sean Kenny is one of the best development guys in the country,” Walker said. “Working with him all spring really helped me have success over the summer, working with Woody Williams.”

Williams, who played 15 years in the majors, was the pitching coach at the University of Texas in 2023 and helped the Longhorns reach the College World Series.

“Having that insight from someone who’s been there and done it was huge in my development process,” Walker said. “Someone who supports you and trusts you and that support in the spring has really gotten me to where I am today.”

Brian Nelson, the former Bombers manager who was named head coach at Oakland University last week, called Walker possibly the league’s best pitcher before the season.

Walker has an earned run average of 0.74 in 48 1/3 innings, appearing in nine games with eight starts. He has walked only 15 times.

Tuesday’s game marked the fifth time that Walker did not allow an earned run. His only loss came 7-6 to the River Monsters on July 7. The River Monsters scored five runs in Walker’s first, but only one run was earned. Walker struck out double figures in four of his first five starts, with a high of 11 in six innings against the Acadiana Cane Cutters on June 13, which he matched in the next game against the Baton Rouge Gumbeaux Gators in eight innings. He had no decisions in both games that the Bombers ultimately lost. The Bombers are just 5-4 in games that Walker has pitched.

On Tuesday he allowed two hits and never more than four.

“I mean, he’s just a dog that’s out on the mound day in and day out, he works his ass off and it’s paying off this summer,” Bombers manager Mark Whitehead said.

Walker faced four consecutive batters and only three in the seventh inning, thanks to a Bombers double play.

“He’s got a four-pitch mix, he can throw all those pitches for strikes,” Whitehead said. “He keeps the hitters off balance and does a good job of mixing it up from at-bat to at-bat when he switches the order once, twice (and) three times. They’re guys like that that are so easy to coach because he does everything right day in and day out.”

The pesky River Monsters tried to thwart Walker’s record-breaking achievement.

The game was scoreless until the Bombers scored twice in the sixth. The Bombers loaded the bases on Tristan Russell’s double and an infield single by Taylor Tomlin was sandwiched between Grant Watkins’ 0-2 pitch.

The Bombers’ Sebastian Kuhns flew to shallow left field for the first out. Cole LeClair hit a weak ground ball to first baseman Peavy who was pulled in. His throw home beat the runner, but the catcher was penalized for pulling his foot off the plate too early, much to the chagrin of Seguin coach-manager Tony Perez who unsuccessfully challenged the call. The Bombers’ Brock DeYoung followed with a fly ball to make it 2-0, but both runs were unearned because of the error.

The Bombers appeared to decide the game with a four-run eighth inning to make it 6-0. The Bombers had four hits, including doubles by Sabastian Kuhns and Jaxon Daigre, but the River Monsters had a trio of errors, including a pair of plays where the Bombers stole third base, coming home both times on errors on the play.

Things got interesting in the ninth inning, however, when the River Monsters scored a pair of runs with two outs on a basesloaded single by Whitt Joyce and a single by Gabriel Rodriguez, his third hit of the game. The bases were still loaded when Bombers reliever Daniel Dial threw a ball into the grass that went toward the backstop. A speeding Bryce Grizzaffi reached the baseball and the catcher threw to Dial, who tagged out a sliding Seguin’s Orlando Samaniego with a bang-bang play. A sprinting Perez ran over to the home plate umpire as he reached third base to voice his displeasure while the Bombers celebrated with several fans seeking Walker’s autograph, one of whom asked him to sign his jersey.

The Bombers had eight hits, two by Drew Collins, including a triple in the seventh inning, but he was left behind.

The River Monsters had six hits. Hunter Ham had two to complement Rodriguez’s three.

The River Monsters (12-29, 6-13 second half) led the Bombers (22-17, 12-5) in the race for the final playoff spot in the Texas Division on July 9 when the Bombers went on an eight-game winning streak. The Bombers have won nine of 11, while the River Monsters, the reigning TCL champions, have lost 11 of 13. Seguin’s Teddy Junkins has been the unlucky one. The right-handed pitcher from West Texas A&M has allowed just four hits in six innings, walking two and striking out two.

The two teams will play again on Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. at Edible Field. The Bombers will close out the regular season with four games against the Texas Division-leading Victoria Generals (30-12, 14-5). The teams will play Thursday and Friday at Edible Field before traveling to Victoria for the final two.

The Bombers and Generals open their best-of-3 division series Tuesday at Edible Field. The plan is to field Walker in that game. Game 2 is Wednesday in Victoria. Game 3, if necessary, would also be in Victoria because it was the winner of the first half.

Acadiana (10-8, 20-22) leads the Louisiana Division in the second half, ahead of Baton Rouge (19-20, 7-10) in the battle for the final playoff spot. The winner will host the opener of that best-of-three series, with the first-half winner, Lake Charles (5-13, 19-22), hosting Game 2 and, if necessary, Game 3.

The two division winners will compete on August 1 for the title on the field of the team with the best overall result.

COMMENTS – Gray set the record in 50 innings. He played in 17 games and made only five. The Cane Cutters, who won the league title that year, played 46 games. … The 5-11, 185-pound Walker developed a better mental approach to the game. “I really feel like I’ve stripped the game down to the simplicity of it, not focusing on the end result and just focusing on the moment with the batter, every pitch, all that stuff,” he said. “It’s not looking for what success you can have. It’s focusing on the moment and that was my big emphasis this summer, to sit back and focus on the task at hand, not the task ahead of you.” … Walker will spend his final college season at Iowa, happy to follow Kenny, who was hired as pitching coach. Kenny was Georgia’s pitching coach for seven years before transferring to UH last year