HUNTINGTON BEACH – Some pitchers tend to pitch, others tend to throw.
In his first two seasons at Huntington Beach, you could have put Noah Davis’ name in the thrower category.
Davis split time between shortstop and pitcher on the freshmen team before being moved to the mound full time as a sophomore, his first season on varsity. His sophomore campaign was a crash course in figuring out how to pitch and approach batters.
Those lessons learned, he sports a 7-0 record and a 0.78 ERA as the ace for the top-ranked Oilers (17-2). He was named the most valuable pitcher of the Hard 9 National Classic this week.
“A lot less stressful,” Huntington Beach pitching coach Adam Springston said jokingly about watching Davis pitch this season. “I have more confidence now that he can make his own adjustments. I can just sit in the dugout and fire off one word and he’ll know how to relate that to his own mechanics.
“He’s just being more trustworthy of his own ability, not forcing the action.”
It wasn’t an easy process getting Davis to this point. His pitching mechanics were a major issue last year. Coach Benji Medure didn’t use Davis for a month last season in order to let him concentrate on fine-tuning his mechanics.
When he returned to the mound, Davis hurled a two-hitter against Mater Dei, which was ranked No. 1 in the county and considered one of the top teams in the nation, in an upset of the Monarchs in the first round of CIF-SS Division 1 playoffs.
The problems reemerged during the offseason, though.
“I was getting my innings in with my high school and travel team … I started to take off velocity to work things out for location, but that didn’t seem to work very well,” Davis said. “At one point, I just started thinking it doesn’t even matter, I’m going to throw it as hard as I can.
“It started working and it started to get my confidence up, and I started to work on my mechanics after that.”
Davis said his ability to locate pitches is the best it’s ever been.
One thing that’s always been at a high level for Davis is his competitiveness. Springston describes Davis as “fearless.”
“He has that fire in him that he wants to be the best,” Medure said. “We love that bulldog mentality that he has. Everybody steps up a notch when he’s on the mound. This team is like that for the most part, but it’s a different level of competition when Noah is out there for sure.”
Davis’ competitive nature made it easy for him to commit to UC Santa Barbara, which he considers a growing force in West Coast baseball.
“As soon as we were driving up, I fell in love with the campus,” Davis said. “I’ve heard a lot about (Gauchos coach Andrew Checketts). He has been a pitching coach, and he works very well with pitchers. And it looks like their program is developing at a rate where it’ll be very good once I get there.”
Springston foresees a big future for the ace of the Oilers’ staff.
“I could see his best baseball in his 20s. He’s 70 percent right now and has a long way to grow,” Springston said. “When he puts it all together, and is firing at 100 percent, it’s going to be impressive to watch.”
Until then, Davis will just have to show everyone what he’s learned.
Contact the writer: amorales@ocregister.com
