Bumgarner mows down

Crawdads in homecoming
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

HICKORY — It seemed that Madison Bumgarner would not make the bus to get back to the hotel following his game Thursday at L.P. Frans Stadium.

Bumgarner had just handcuffed the Hickory Crawdads for 6 1/3 innings in leading the Augusta GreenJackets to a 4-2 victory. Hickory managed just two infield hits against the former South Caldwell star and allowed one unearned run before hitting his pitch count and being taken out of the game.

He left the crowd of 4,808, most of them that had addressees in Caldwell County, wanting more, but feeling proud for their native son. Bumgarner, who is from Hudson, got a standing ovation and tipped his hat twice in appreciation.

“That was pretty awesome,” Bumgarner said. “It was definitely a blessing to grow up in this town with all of those people.”

Bumgarner, who led South Caldwell to a state 4-A baseball championship in 2007, looked like he was back in the Northwestern 4-A Conference where he dominated hitters every time he took the mound. He struck out eight Crawdads and didn’t allow a base hit to the outfield. The Crawdads got a sacrifice fly from Miles Durham in the fourth inning, and Andrew Walker broke his bat on a fly ball to centerfield that was caught.

Everything else the Crawdads hit was kept in the infield.

“Madison threw a great game,” Augusta manager Andy Skeels said. “He’s been working really hard on gaining fastball command. He threw a lot of strikes and his breaking ball was down. It had a real sharp break tonight. He pounded the strike zone and he was really aggressive. He made a lot of good pitches.”

Bumgarner hit his pitch count of 75 when he got Durham to ground out to first base. Hickory didn’t find any rhythm until Erik Hunter singled and scored on a Walker double, both off of relief pitcher Daniel Turpen. The Crawdads had two singles in the eighth, but went down in order in the ninth.

Bumgarner knew he was close to his pitch count, but was allowed to pitch to Durham so he could make a curtain call in front of the L.P. Frans crowd.

“I knew it was coming,” Bumgarner said. “I was glad they let me come out for the seventh. It was nice.”

While the rest of the GreenJackets went to the clubhouse, Bumgarner patiently signed autographs, hugged some folks and posed for pictures for about an hour after the game. His baseball coach at South Caldwell, Jeff Parham, also stopped by to wish Bumgarner well.

Bumgarner also signed autographs for Conrad the Crawdad and a police officer before heading back to the clubhouse.

“It was pretty wild,” Bumgarner said. “It’s the least I can do for everybody who came out and for the kids.”
Bumgarner also got some respect from Hickory manager Gary Green.

“He shut us down,” Green said. “It was combination of him making good pitches and us swinging at some bad ones, but give him the credit. He’s got a chance to be a good one down the road.”

Bumgarner was taken 10th overall in the first round by the San Francisco Giants in the 2007 major league amateur draft. He did not pitch last year and was sent to Augusta, the low Single-A affiliate of the Giants this spring.

He improved his record to 2-2 and lowered his ERA from 7.71 to 5.00 Thursday. He has 20 strikeouts in 18 innings and has walked just three batters all season. He did not walk any Thursday night.

“He does a lot of things well, which is why we’re happy to have him in our organization and why we think he has a bright future,” Skeels said. “He does a lot of things that successful major league pitchers do and we hope that he continues his progress, because at this point, he’s doing real well.”

Augusta goes back home for a three-game series with Asheville before going back on the road to play at Charleston, S.C. Augusta will return to Hickory June 27-30. Whether Bumgarner is still with the team remains to be seen. If he continues to hold teams to two infield hits and striking out eight in the process, he could get called up.

Until that moment happens, he’ll look back fondly at Thursday night.

“It was definitely a blessing to come here,” Bumgarner said. “I’ll definitely remember this.”