Connor Little Named Frontier League Pitcher of the Week
Published on August 18, 2015 under Frontier League (FL)
Evansville Otters News Release
Evansville Otters Pitcher Connor Little
(Evansville Otters)
Evansville, IN- For the third time this summer, and member of the Evansville Otters (50-28) pitching staff has been named the Pointstreak Frontier League Pitcher of the Week. This week's honors go to stellar reliever and setup man for the Otters, Connor Little.
Little, the tall right-handed setup man who hails from San Diego, CA has been a stopgap near the back of the bullpen all season long for the Otters and this past week put up his best week in a season full of domination. On the week for Little, he faced a total of 15 batters and retired them all, while striking out ten of the hapless opponents and picking up a pair of wins.
His coup-de-grace came on Saturday against the Schaumburg Boomers when he went up against six men, striking out the first five with the only contact a weak popout to center field on the first pitch of the sixth at bat. It was the second time in the last two weeks that Little struck out the first five batters he faced in relief.
The strikeout tallies would be even more impressive, if it was not so commonplace for the 6'6 hurler; Little has picked up multiple strikeouts in 23 of his 37 outings and has faced the minimum number of batters on 15 of those occasions. His ability to rack up the punchouts has made life easier for pitching coach Max Peterson, as whenever the Otters are in trouble, Peterson calls on Little and Little gets them out of the jam.
Just this past week, Little stranded all three inherited runners he was allotted, and on the season he is 20 of 22 in the category. His outings are not limited to simply one inning and done appearances either; for the majority of his outings, Little is tasked with picking up four or more outs, something he has accomplished in 20 of 37 relief outings.
All told, Little is among the best relievers in baseball and the pure stats back it up as well. In 37 appearances, all out of the bullpen, Little has thrown 57 innings, compiling a 3-5 record with a 1.38 ERA. Opponents have little to no shot of doing damage against him as he has given up just 33 hits and has amazing control for a power pitcher; he has walked just eleven batters, two of which were intentional, while punching out 72 on the season. If he is in the game and the Otters have the lead, no team has yet to crack Little, who is 10-for-10 in holds and 2-for-2 in saves as part of the back end of a bullpen alongside Edgar Lopez (20-for-21 in saves) that has the Otters record at 49-0 when leading at any point in the final two innings of a game.
Little joins Trevor Walch and fellow San Diegan, Will Oliver, as the only Otters to be named Pointstreak Pitcher's of the Week in the Frontier League. Walch won his honor for his complete game performance the week ending May 31st, while Will Oliver was the clear-cut choice in the week ending July 26th, when he notched two complete game shutouts while striking out 16.
Images from this story
 Evansville Otters Pitcher Connor Little |
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