East Carolina Baseball

Hatcher joins majors as a pitcher

"I'm not worried about it until it happens,''he said in a telephone interview after his baseball game minor league finals.

When the Marlins brought up Friday, he became the first major leaguer in 75 years to its beginnings as a receiver and then return as a pitcher.

"If you look at the finish line before you start, you may be in trouble,''he said." If you do what you're supposed to do, things will work out.''

And they did as he was in the Marlins' bullpen Friday night against the Houston Astros, but not high.

He was already on the list of 40 players and replaced the hand of Brad, who got his first major-league victory against Houston before being an option as a starting pitcher with Class AA Jacksonville, where Hatcher was pitching in the league South. Hatcher is a former UNC-Wilmington exceptional.

With Jacksonville (Florida), he had a 2-1 record and 2.31 earned run average in 30 appearances with 39 strikeouts in 35 innings.

In the first half of the season, the organization has tried to follow his appearances, making sure he did not do back-to-back relief appearances.

"I could not do that earlier this year,''he said of consecutive appearances.

But the Marlins were impressed with its substance and in particular the order in its first four months as a pitcher.

"His command was good since Day 1, Marlins'''exécutif Jim Fleming said." He was able to throw strikes. And other locations - the cursor up and change - are getting better all the time. It's just a matter of repetition. He throws strikes with all his pitches.

"His delivery was pretty simple and easy.Just the fact he caught all those years, he has a pretty good understanding of a game plan and made it all more quickly for him.''

He was a catcher in the Marlins' system for five years after the team drafted him in the fifth round in 2006 following his junior season with the Seahawks.

"It was a good catcher and pitcher good and we wanted to exhaust this first,''said Fleming. "The fact it happened so fast on the mound, it's not like we lost a lot of time.’’

Following a call up to the Marlins last year, Hatcher was 0-for-6 as a catcher and nearly made a cameo relief appearance after warming up during a late-season game. His last professional hit, however, was a game-winning home run in the 2010 Southern League title game.

Tulane baseball vs. East Carolina: live Twitter updates | NOLA.com

Thank you for joining us for tonight's game between Conference USA Baseball East Carolina and Tulane at Turchin Stadium Field in Greer.

The Green Wave (30-21, 10-11) attempts to seduce the selection committee of the NCAA Tournament, hoping to get its first regional nomination at large since 2008, if it does not win the tournament conference.

"We play for the NCAA, we are not playing for anything other than that," coach Rick Jones.

The Pirates (34-18, 11-10) have the ninth best ERA in the nation (2.68) and lead the conference in the category.They also have the best opponent batting average (0237).

The left-hander David Napoli (1-2, 4.09) will take the mound for the wave against right-hander Mike Wright (5-3, 3.06).

The game will be broadcast on 104.9 FM and AM-690-.

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