By Mike London
mlondon@salisburypost.com
Throwing baseballs on the Gulf of Mexico isn’t a bad life, but Northwest Florida State pitcher Keegan Linza can’t wait to back home.
“As much as I like it here and as well as things have gone here, it’s still 10 hours away,” Linza said in a phone interview. “Too far for my family to see me pitch.”
Linza, a 6-foot-6 right-hander who graduated from North Rowan in 2007, will enroll at Liberty in Lynchburg, Va., this fall and will continue his baseball odyssey with the Flames of the Big South Conference.
Linza is only 20, but he’s seen as much of the world as classmates who joined the Navy.
Linza was in the headlines often as a high school phenom. As an East Rowan freshman, he was the varsity quarterback. On the baseball field, he was 3-1.
He transferred to North Rowan prior to his sophomore year and turned in a dominating baseball season for the Cavaliersó seven wins, a 1.92 ERA and 92 strikeouts in 692/3 innings.
As a junior, he produced a spectacular two-sport effort. In football, he was the CCC Player of the Year, passing for 2,264 yards and 18 TDs.
On the diamond, he went 8-1 with a 1.77 ERA and 78 strikeouts. In his lone loss, the Cavs didn’t score.
The summer before his senior year he verbally committed to South Carolina, his dream school, for baseball.
Following his junior success, Linza seemed a prime candidate for Rowan County Athlete of the Year honors as a senior, but he gave up football to concentrate on his baseball career. That made sense. Most everyone believed his ceiling was higher in baseball.
In November, 2006, he officially signed with the Gamecocks. That turned out to be the highlight of a lost senior year. A lingering injury kept him out most of the baseball season. On opening day, he threw eight shutout innings against East Rowan. Then he didn’t pitch again until he relieved and lost a second-round playoff game on an unearned run.
Linza made his comeback in the summer of 2007 with a powerhouse Rowan County American Legion team.
He went 8-0 on the mound, mixing brilliance ó eight dominating innings in a playoff game at Kernersville ó with occasional struggles, most notably in the state tournament against Cherryville. He struck out 80, but his ERA swelled to an un-Linza-like 4.69.
“My numbers that Legion season were the worst of my career,” Linza said. “Coming back after basically missing the whole high school season, I struggled finding my release point. Looking back, I was trying to throw too hard and I got pretty messed up mechanically.”
He headed to South Carolina with high hopes. Head coach Ray Tanner had been thrilled to sign him and had told the Post, “Keegan’s really the prototype pitcher. If you’re looking to build a pitcher, you’d want to start with the Keegan Linza model.”
But South Carolina recruits armies of talented arms. Linza got lost in the shuffle. His freshman year, he took the mound three times and pitched 52/3 innings. He didn’t get rocked, but he watched a lot.
He pitched well for the Columbia Blowfish (3.12 ERA) in the wood bat Coastal Plain League last summer, including a stellar outing in which he allowed two hits, no walks and one run in eight innings.
Still, he didn’t expect his role to suddenly change at South Carolina as a sophomore. That left him with an agonizing decision.
“It was tough because I liked South Carolina and enjoyed it there,” Linza said. “But I felt like I’d wasted a year of baseball and didn’t want to waste another one. I didn’t think the opportunities would be there. Leaving just came down to wanting to pitch more.”
Linza enrolled at Northwest Florida State in Niceville last fall looking for regular work. Niceville is way out on the Florida panhandle, closer to Mobile, Ala., than to to Tallahassee. Linza found sunshine and beaches. He also found the innings he craved.
And competition. The Florida junior college circuit isn’t the ACC or SEC, but it’s good baseball.
“I was a little surprised at the level of play,” Linza said. “I knew it would be good, but it’s really good. There are a lot of Division I types here. There are a lot of draft guys. Night in, night out, very competitive.”
Linza pitched eight innings and received no-decision in a 17-inning game against Chipola on Tuesday. That effort put him right at 70 innings for the season. He’s 4-3. He’d posted 62 strikeouts and only 16 walks prior to Tuesday’s game.
“I feel great physically, and I’m happy with how I’m throwing,” Linza said. “I’m 230 pounds now. I’m in the upper 80s with my fastball, touching 90 or 91. I’m using my curveball and cutter a lot and getting groundballs.”
Linza, despite his imposing frame, has always been more pitcher than thrower. Even when he was 15, he had the head to match his arm.
Now he’ll have a chance to pitch his junior year for one of his biggest supporters. Liberty coach Jim Toman has ridden on the Linza bandwagon for years.
Toman used to be recruiting coordinator at South Carolina and was responsible for signing Linza. Since June, 2007, Toman’s been the head coach at Liberty.
“I’ve had a good relationship with Coach Toman since I was a kid going to summer camps,” Linza said. “I trust him.”
Liberty has a winning program. That’s a plus. So is the school’s location. Compared to the Florida panhandle, Lynchburg, Va., is just around the corner.
“I believe the innings will be there, and Liberty’s program is strong enough I might get a chance to pitch in big games, maybe regional games,” Linza said. It’s the best fit possible.”