A longtime SEC coach is helping Mizzou's pitching staff be among the country's best
When Steve Bieser lost his pitching coach last summer, he promised his Missouri players that they would be happy with the replacement he’d hire. Pitchers had loved working with Patrick Hallmark — who left MU to become coach at Incarnate Word — and Bieser needed another coach who could jell with the Tigers.
So Bieser, now in his second season as Missouri's coach, picked a man whom he used to see in an opposing dugout and think, “I don’t like that guy.”
That was back when Bieser was the coach at Southeast Missouri State and his team was facing off against Memphis, where Fred Corral spent three seasons. Corral has a confidence that permeates throughout his pitching staff and, based on Bieser’s initial reaction to him, even makes an impression on opponents.
Bieser likes Corral more now that he’s improved the Tigers on the mound. Heading into the first game of Missouri’s series against No. 10 Vanderbilt on Thursday evening, the Tigers' 3.17 staff ERA ranked 15th in the country. Their 2.95 strikeout-to-walk ratio was the 13th best in Division I. In conference games, Mizzou had posted an ERA of 3.61, which ranked second in the SEC.
The Tigers utilized some of their best pitching of the season to record a 2-1 victory in the series opener against Vanderbilt. TJ Sikkema and Andy Toelken combined to strike out 14 batters in the program’s second-ever win over the Commodores. Toelken didn’t allow a hit in the three innings he pitched.
“They’ll run through a wall for him,” Bieser said of how his pitchers have taken to their new coach. “... He’s able to adapt to our players, rather than say, ‘This is how I do it, as a cookie-cutter pitching coach.’”
That's because Corral is not cookie-cutter. The cover of the pitching manual sitting on his office desk is an illustration of warriors lining up in battle, and he likes to use military terms.
Patton is the daily throwing regimen. There’s also Geronimo, Spartacus and Sully, the last of which is the fielding technique for bunts and is named after Sully Sullenberger, the Air Force veteran who successfully landed a US Airways flight on the Hudson River.
“He was a bad mama jama,” said Corral, who worked at Georgia from 2013-17 before being let go from the Bulldogs’ staff after UGA recorded a 5.03 ERA. He has rediscovered success with the Tigers, a group that has been receptive to his instructions.
Under Corral’s direction, Michael Plassmeyer, the team’s ace, now positions himself more toward the left side of the mound. As a result, the lefty’s release point is lower, and his pitches stay hidden from batters for longer. The junior has struck out 71 batters through nine starts and posted a 1.96 ERA.
Corral’s directive for junior Bryce Montes De Oca has been even simpler: He has told him to stop overthinking each matchup. The 6-foot-7 righty from Lawrence can overpower hitters with a fastball that tops out at 100 mph, and Corral wants the pitcher to play to his advantages. Montes De Oca — who is currently out because of a sore neck — has posted a 2.64 ERA, the lowest of his career. He has cut down on his walks, too.
“He’s probably one of the smartest pitching minds I’ve ever been with,” Tyler LaPlante, a Pembroke Hill graduate who has struck out 30 batters in 33 innings, said of Corral. “I think I’ve shook him off maybe four times all year.”
Corral also did two separate stints at Tennessee before his time at Georgia. He came to Mizzou with 11 years of experience in the SEC, and he can provide a confidence boost to the Tigers.
“Knowing that he’s been through it all, there’s nothing that’s going to happen that he hasn’t seen before,” LaPlante said. “Just having that experience in a pitching coach, knowing he’s not going to get rattled by anything that happens, makes it easier for you on the mound not to get rattled.”
The Tigers are 26-12 (7-9 SEC) and have seven wins against ranked teams. They could earn the program’s first NCAA postseason appearance since 2012. To accomplish that, though, they will need to survive a league schedule that included two more games against Vanderbilt, as well as series against No. 6 Kentucky and No. 23 Georgia.
Corral said a person must be "kind of psycho" to love being a part of the SEC, a conference in which he likes to say a team’s “easiest day was yesterday."
That's a phrase he took from the military.
This story was originally published April 20, 2018 at 12:58 PM with the headline "A longtime SEC coach is helping Mizzou's pitching staff be among the country's best."