Senior right hander Sam Finnerty was named the SEC’s co-pitcher of the week, the league office announced on Monday.
Finnerty threw Alabama’s first complete game of the season and the first of his career in a 9-0 win over South Carolina in the first game of Friday’s doubleheader. He is the first Alabama baseball player to win a weekly award from the conference this season.
“I’m really proud of Sam Finnerty, being named SEC co-pitcher of the week,” coach Brad Bohannon said. “This is a huge accomplishment. You can have a great performance and not get recognized for that. Sam has been great in his time here, and I’m really happy for him, and proud of him for earning that well-deserved recognition.”
He needed just 79 pitches to complete the game. He retired 15 batters with one or two pitches, and only one South Carolina batter worked the count to three balls. Finnerty allowed four hits while striking out five. At one point, he retired 16 straight batters. Finnerty had no wild pitches and hit no batters. He faced three over the minimum.
For the season, he’s 5-3 in eight starts with a 3.19 earned run average. He’s issued just six walks in 48 innings pitched and been Alabama’s most consistent starter.
“He’s had 14 SEC starts since I’ve been the head coach and has given us a very legitimate chance to win 13 times,” Bohannon said. “I’ll take that every day of the week. That’s probably the biggest compliment you can give him, he’s just so consistent. He just is the same guy every day. He prepares well, he competes well. He is so consistent and that’s so valuable in a lot of ways. Just really appreciate what he brings to our club and I’m excited for him to have a good finish to his senior year.”
Finnerty shared the honor with Georgia’s Tony Locey, who threw seven innings in a 3-1 win over Vanderbilt. Locey allowed one hit and one run to help the Bulldogs win.
