Baseball | 9/23/2020 1:28:00 PM
Through three seasons with the Gophers, left-handed pitcher Bubba Horton has been one of the most reliable arms out of the Minnesota bullpen. Having totaled 47 innings through the 2020 campaign, Horton owns a 3.83 career earned run average with 62 strikeouts, translating to 11.9 strikeouts-per-nine innings.Entering the 2020 season, Horton was coming off a strong 2019 showing in which he notched a 2-0 record to go along with a 3.06 ERA and 19 strikeouts in 17 2/3 innings of work. All he did was take his pitching to the next level in 2020, tying for the team-high with two saves and opening the year with a streak of 8 2/3 scoreless frames in which he struck out 16 batters against just two walks.
Each of Horton's 2020 saves nailed down signature wins for the Gophers. The first came on opening weekend against Arizona, as Horton tossed 2 1/3 shutout innings with three strikeouts to lead Minnesota to victory. Horton's second save occurred on Feb. 23 versus TCU, in which the southpaw fired 2 2/3 scoreless innings with a career-high seven strikeouts.
Penciled in as one of Minnesota's go-to weapons in the bullpen for 2021, Gopher Sports sat down with Horton to talk baseball and beyond.
Gopher Sports: How did you keep busy during the summer months?
Horton: "I played town ball, not that frequently, but just to get out on the field a bit. It was fun, but it's not going to take up a lot of time. Luckily, we have a pool, so I tried to get in there quite a bit. Maybe do some running around the backyard, just to make sure I stayed active. I went disk golfing a lot, which is something I like to do. Tried to reconnect with some friends I usually don't see often… It was a lot of just trying to find different things to stay busy and being productive with my time."
GS: What's a good score for you out on the disk golf course?
BH: "It depends on where I'm playing. We're pretty lucky here, because we have a high ratio of really nice courses per capita. Within an hour, there's six or seven top-notch courses and a countless amount of others. I tied my personal best at one of those courses this summer at 13-under for a round, which I was pretty happy about. Usually, if I can get seven or eight-down or better, that's a good day at the course."
GS: Did you pick up any unique hobbies or talents during quarantine?
BH: "I practiced playing guitar a lot, just to pick up a hobby… I started in September, so I'm basically at the one-year point. I practiced pretty much every day. As soon as we got sent home, I was putting 2-3 hours, maybe more, per day into it, trying to learn new stuff. Stuff that I can do that people would recognize would be the intro to the song "One" by Metallica. I'm working on the solo from "Stricken" by Disturbed. Some Scorpions. I can do the main riff to "Sweet Child of Mine." [I can do] "Simple Man." I can do the main acoustic riff and the solo to "More Than a Feeling" by Boston. I'll stop there."
GS: How was your summer baseball experience with the Delano A's?
BH: "Honestly, I had a blast doing it. I played with Delano, so Toby Hanson, who played here, he was a senior my freshman year, he was the one that got me into it. There were actually a lot of current college or former college guys, a couple of former pro guys, so our team was pretty good, which was nice. It was that casual environment, go to the field, have fun – but I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of play. More so from out team, but a good amount of the teams we played also had some good guys, so it was a good experience and I think it would be a viable option for somebody that doesn't want to go all the way out to California or something, because I did see good quality hitting."
GS: How essential was it to get summer innings after not getting a full season in?
BH: "It was nice to have an option. I was originally planning on doing an internship, and then pretty much all of those got shut down. I didn't really want to go back out to the Northwoods [League] for a third season. Then, Toby texted me and asked if I wanted to do that. Ideally, I would have liked to have gotten on campus, worked with our coaching staff, the weight room and developed as much as I could, but that wasn't really an option this year. I think playing town ball allowed me to make the most of the situation."
GS: Take us back to that opening weekend save against Arizona. What were you feeling after that game?
BH: "Honestly, it was conviction. Me realizing that I do belong. I am good enough to throw. Going in, I never really had that game where I was like, 'Yeah, this is a great team and they just couldn't do anything.' Going into that game, I kind of just stuck with what I felt good about. I stuck to pitching more to my strengths, rather than getting ahead with the fastball and then going off-speed. I really tried to pitch to what my arsenal was best at. I think that was the turning point in me realizing that I can throw to all these top Division I hitters. I can make plays in the heat of the situation and I can get out there and get the last three outs of the game."
GS: Was it Arizona or your save against TCU that was the highlight of 2020 for you?
BH: "I would say Arizona. Going into TCU, I was still riding pretty high off Arizona. Arizona was big, especially with the circumstances of me coming into the game… Basically, just getting thrown into the fire. Whereas with TCU, you have time to prepare. You kind of know when you're going to be going in. No knock, because I felt really good about that one as well. Arizona was just more spur of the moment."
GS: What clicked for you in 2020 that allowed you to take your pitching to the next level?
BH: "Knowing what I should be throwing and when. A lot of times, early in my career, I would just go with whatever the catcher told me, even if that wasn't necessarily what I wanted to throw. I think this season was kind of me figuring out that I know what I need to be doing in certain situations. It just came down to knowing what I can get over the plate consistently for a strike and also being able to execute a pitch either the batter might not see coming and get a called third strike, or maybe get him to chase something a little bit outside the zone. I think it was a combination of all of that."
GS: How important is this fall after having the 2020 season cut short?
BH: "I think this fall is going to be great, just for the team in general. At this point, we have to assume that we're going to be starting on time, but there's no guarantee of that happening. Everyone is on the same page about how we get limited practice time, limited time in the weight room, and I think it's really going to bring in an added level of focus, so everybody can make sure they make the most of their time at the field, in the weight room and in the training room. As a pitching staff, we weren't happy with how we played last year. This will be a good opportunity for us to take a step back, identify what it is we need to work on collectively and be able to attack those things this fall, so that when the season comes around, we've got our feel, we're locked in, we're ready to go and we know what we can do."
GS: What is your primary area of focus this fall in terms of developing your game?
BH: "This fall, I'm definitely going to be focusing a lot on command. As a guy that doesn't throw high nineties, you have to be able to pick your spots. With that, I'm trying to get a little bit more spin on my fastball, get it to play up in the zone so I can then play that changeup off of it."
GS: How nice was it to be reunited with your teammates after the long time away?
BH: "It was a weird feeling. Just showing up to camp and seeing everybody again, you always get that feeling when you get back from the summer, but especially now after so many months apart, it was good to catch up with everybody and figure out what guys were doing over the summer."
GS: Who is one teammate that always has your number in intrasquad games?
BH: "I would say [Easton Bertrand]. I don't know why. He always hits the ball hard off me. And [Gabe Knowles]. Easton and Gabe always hit the ball hard off me in practice. I don't know why or if they pick up a read or something, but they always put good swings on it."
GS: Who is your way-too-early pick for 2021 breakout Gopher?
BH: "Honestly, I was going to say [Drew Stahl], because he's my roommate and I think he has a good head on his shoulders. But, I'm going to go on the pitching side and go J.P. Massey. I know he's shown flashes, he's got all the stuff and he's put in a lot of work in the off-season. I think we're going to start to see some of that play out in the field... I want to add Jack Liffrig to that list. He was about ready to get his opportunity last year right before the season got cancelled. I know he did quite well this summer and he definitely puts his time in, so I'm going to have to add him to that list."
GS: How do you think the Gophers will stack up in 2021?
BH: "We're actually in a pretty good spot. Obviously, we lost [Max Meyer], which any team is going to feel that loss. We lost [Sam Thoresen] and we lost [Jordan Kozicky]. But, if you just look at that, we get a majority of our pitching staff back and a lot of guys showed some pretty good flashes last year and have now had an entire year to work on it. Also, we all have our eligibility left, so I think losing only three guys after all of this is putting us in a really good spot to have basically the same team. I know our offense did really well last year and we get all those guys, minus Kozicky, back. Our pitching staff was really young this past season and I think having a few months to mature and grow, and especially this fall, all getting to work together, if we can find some consistency there, myself included, we could have a chance to repeat what we did in the 2018 season and maybe even better."
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