Reliever Billy Sadler is a study in contrasts.
He will come at a batter with a 95 mph fastball and then escort him back to the pine with a bending, knee-buckling curveball.
If one talks to him, he is soft spoken, but on the mound, he is an emotional, fiery leader.
If there is one thing consistent about Sadler, it is he wants to win. He wants to be the guy that shuts the door on the other team. For the majority of the season and since the loss of closer Brandon Nall, Sadler has been the save artist for the Tigers.
According to Sadler, there is no pressure involved in pitching. For him, it is just another day at the office.
“I don’t really look at it as pressure,” Sadler said. “You’re adrenaline is going, and you just go out there to try to do your best and to go out there and dominate.”
Sadler has a 1-1 record with a 2.57 ERA. He also has two saves on the year and has given LSU an emotional, sometimes intimidating, presence on the mound.
“It’s just the tight situations that get me pumped up,” Sadler said. “I just like that situation, to go in there, shut the door and help the starting pitcher out.
“I just let them know that I’m not afraid to go after anybody. It’s just kind of funny because everybody’s saying stuff, the crowd’s getting into it, and the players are saying stuff while you’re out on the field.”
His intensity has caught the eye of pitching coach Brady Wiederhold.
“Billy is an extreme competitor,” Wiederhold said. “He’s got that fire in him, and he likes to come in in those situations when the game is on the line to try to slam the door on someone. If you’re a pitcher that comes in in those situations, you need a little bit of that in you.”
Freshman catcher Matt Liuzza said it is this fire that burns within Sadler on the mound that makes him very effective.
“That’s why Sadler’s so good,” Liuzza said. “When he gets in between those lines, it’s all out. He doesn’t care who’s up to bat, he’s going to go after you with the fastball, and he’s going to get you out.”
Sadler, at 6-foot, 190 pounds does not look like most flame throwers. However, he said he has topped out at 96 mph but consistently hits the radar gun at 95.
Liuzza said he is more than happy to catch Sadler, for obvious reasons.
“He’s definitely the hardest guy [to catch], far beyond anyone else,” Liuzza said. “He’s got that fastball, and then it comes with a deadly curveball. I’m glad I’m catching him and not hitting him.”
Fans at Alex Box Stadium usually see Sadler jogging from the dugout to the right field wall starting in the fourth inning.
“As a closer, you have to stay in the game mentally, and you want your body physically ready,” Sadler said. “You want to stay warm. After the game is over, I run and stretch because it’s more of keeping your body in shape. You want to get the blood flow going again.”
Sadler said he watched the 1997 National Championship game when LSU defeated Alabama,13-6. He said as a hitter, this game provided the initiative for Sadler to follow Tiger baseball.
“I was ready to come here and hit and pitch,” he said. “I knew to make it to the next level, I had to pitch.
“In middle school I had written a little essay about going to play at LSU. My teacher [recently] sent it to Brady [Wiederhold]. She said, ‘Oh I wanted to talk to Billy. Can you get him to send me a picture of him in his LSU uniform because he wrote this essay?’ [Wiederhold] put it up in the locker room and said ‘Oh it’s so cute,’ and they were making fun of me in the locker room.”
Sadler said he mostly wanted to come to LSU as a hitter. He proved his success as a batter at Pensacola Catholic High School in Pensacola, Fla., where he played shortstop and hit .452 with eight home runs and 41 RBI in 2000.
“It’s a great feeling to pitch and strike someone out,” Sadler said. “I definitely miss [hitting]. I’m able to deal with it now. It’s an awesome feeling out there on the mound to control the game.”