March 30, 2006

Ben Hunter is not surprised to be where he is today. He isn't surprised to be at Wake Forest, he isn't surprised that thus far this season he has an ACC-best seven saves, and he isn't surprised he has taken well to his role as the Demon Deacons' closer.

"I've been asked that (if he is surprised by his immediate success) by a couple of people and the answer is - no," Hunter said. "I've sort of always been underrated at every level I've played. I wasn't expected to do much in high school and ended up doing more than they expected. Last year, I didn't have much hype going into to college and got the job done, so I've always had a mentality of self-confidence and positive thinking that my dad (Ken Hunter) put in my head growing up."

A season ago, Hunter wasn't even at Wake Forest. He was pitching at Furman University, a Southern Conference institution, and doing well. He finished the season 6-4 with a 4.38 ERA in 74 innings of work as the Paladins' No. 2 starter. He made 16 appearances as a freshman and 13 starts, which was the second most on the Furman staff. His numbers would have probably been better had he not suffered through the flu, food poisoning and kidney stones all in less than a month.

"It was definitely a good experience in that I got the playing time I needed to get used to college hitters, basically college pitching, but on the other hand it wasn't exactly the college experience I was looking for," Hunter said. "I was kind of overshadowed by my teammates in high school, so I didn't get the innings I needed to get the attention from big colleges, and that was why I ended up there. It just wasn't the exact atmosphere I was looking for, and it wasn't the competition I was looking for baseball-wise.

"I started out real hot and then I hit a rough spot, when I got the flu, food poisoning and kidney stones. I lost a lot of weight, so the endurance went down, and I lost a little velocity. The numbers went down there at the end of the year, but I did my job in general."

Hunter played in high school at Cincinnati's Archbishop Moeller on a team that recorded 13 shutouts and 16 straight wins to end the season. USA Today ranked Archbishop Moeller 19th nationally. Playing on such a talented team, Hunter may have been overlooked. He had initially targeted schools such as Wake Forest, Duke and Vanderbilt as universities he would like to attend but said he just didn't have what they wanted at the time. So after a year at Furman, Hunter gave Wake Forest a second look.

"After I got my release, I talked with my pitching coach in Cincinnati, who knows a lot of major college coaches," Hunter said. "The first school he recommended was Wake Forest. He has already sent one of our players here, Joel Ernst, a freshman. He got me in contact with Coach Rembielak, who is also from Ohio, and knows my pitching coach. Basically, I got in touch with Coach Rem, came down for a visit, liked everything I heard. I talked with Coach (Chris) Sinacori and heard good things from him, and I just really liked the direction they were taking the team. I didn't expect it to happen this quickly, but what I expected to happen has happened."

"I knew Ben out of high school, and knew the coaches from his high school," Rembielak said. "I didn't really know how much he pitched at Furman, so I hadn't really seen him since his high school season. We got a tape of him, and off that you could see he knew how to throw. We asked a couple of scouts who saw him throw but didn't really see him pitch until he stepped foot on campus. I didn't exactly know he'd be like he is now, but I had heard good things about him. But the way he has performed for us this season is really over and above what we expected and what we thought we were going to get."

With an intense nature on the mound, Hunter claims to be very loose in the bullpen. He says his teammates tell him it looks like he doesn't care when he is on the mound closing out a game. He explains that it's not that he doesn't care because he very much cares but that he doesn't think about anything going wrong. He is totally focused on getting the job done.

Hunter said his father passed down some books written by Norman Vincent Peale that have helped him build a positive outlook and mental toughness. He says the books' premises are to believe in something bigger than him. His father taught him not to make excuses and to "own up" to whatever happens, either positive or negative. So far it's been a recipe for success for a pitcher in a new and different role.

"Honestly, outside of maybe one appearance last year, this is the first time I've actually relieved in a baseball game in my life," Hunter said. "I've always been a starter. At the same time, when Coach Sinacori kind of explained the role, it seemed to fit. It's a role that requires you to come out and focus.\and not have any fear of the other team or of giving up runs. So you've got to go out there with your best stuff with people running on base, and that was something I figured I could do. It has fit well. I've always been a strikeout pitcher, and that lends itself to relief pitching and closing. I've really enjoyed it, coming out and giving the other team my best stuff for an inning."

Rembielak says Hunter is basically a fastball, slider pitcher, a two-pitch guy with good movement and velocity on his fastball. Because of his release, hitters can't pick up the spin on the ball out of his hand making him very deceptive. After getting to see first-hand Hunter's demeanor on the mound, it became apparent to the coaching staff he was the obvious choice as closer.

"In our case, it was a process of elimination," Rembielak said. "We had some starters in place, and each year you're looking for that personality, that kind of guy who can end up being a closer. It might not be the pitches or the stuff, but the demeanor, the ability to handle that type of intensity. You look at stuff, but the demeanor as well, and those two things added up with Ben. He has great mound presence and the more Coach Sinacori talked to him and observed, you could sense he would have a good demeanor to be a closer. We really needed somebody to solidify that role.

"You can see the arm strength and that he is a very good athlete. Then he started throwing to hitters, and they were saying that it was so tough to see the ball, so tough to hit him. His slider is his out pitch, and they just have a hard time seeing that pitch out of his hand. It's very deceptive, and as a pitcher sometimes that means a lot more than having good stuff."

Through 22 games, Hunter has 13 appearances, a 1-0 record, seven saves and 24 strikeouts for the 17-5 Deacons. He picked up his seventh save of the season when Wake Forest completed a three-game sweep of Boston College with an 8-6 victory March 19 at Hooks Stadium's Layton Field.

Although Hunter isn't surprised at what he has so far accomplished, others have been. If the opposition is paying attention, they won't be anymore. With the meat of the ACC schedule still ahead, Hunter is certain to get many more opportunities to turn his sophomore season into a very special one and his college career into one that has everything he was looking for.