The Face of the Warriors' Ace

During Kurt Marut's first two starts this season, something wasn't quite right.

Nobody was too worried, as the Wilton ace still pitched better than most hurlers in the FCIAC. It's just that he didn't, in the words of Wilton pitching coach Mark Ketley, look like the Kurt Marut that everyone had come to expect.

The Warriors' coaching staff did some fine tuning and now the UConn-bound senior is back to being his old dominating self.

Marut is the FCIAC's only seven-game winner and it's a good bet either he or Staples' David Speer (6-0) will be named the league's pitcher of the year.

"He's getting hot at the right time with the playoffs approaching," Wilton coach Tim Eagen said. "His fastball looks like it has a lot more zip to it."

So, exactly what was the issue early in the season?

"The beginning of the year, I guess I was over-working myself during practice and even on game day and not running as much," Marut said. "Me and coach Ketley were trying to think of different things, like not doing the workout on game day and maybe run more during practice to get my legs in shape."

Ketley altered Marut's workout program to include less throwing and more of an emphasis on building up the pitcher's lower body strength through a lot of running drills.

"We worked him pretty hard on his legs to make sure his lower half was solid for seven innings, and it's been lights out for four starts in a row," Ketley said.

Marut's ERA of 2.50 actually is a run higher than last season's mark of 1.37. However, in four recent outings, Marut's ERA was close to where it was a year ago.

He was tested a bit on Friday, surrendering four runs in a 5-4 win over McMahon, but still picked up his seventh win in another complete game effort.

Perhaps his biggest victory of the season came in his previous start last Monday, when he defeated Greenwich, 4-3, to keep the Warriors among the FCIAC leaders.  Prior to that game, Greenwich had lost only one game all season.

At 13-3 overall and 12-3 in the league, Wilton is tied for second in the FCIAC with Greenwich and Norwalk, with three conference games remaining.

"The past couple games, I've been trying to just keep the hitters really off balance, starting off with off-speed (pitches), getting first-pitch strikes," Marut said before facing McMahon.

Ketley estimates that Marut began the year throwing around 86 or 87 miles per hour, but is now probably up closer to 90.

"That's probably from not doing the workouts on game day, coming in stronger to the game and lasting longer and deeper into the innings," Marut said.

Eagen, who started Marut as a sophomore, has watched the maturation process. There is no doubt that at 6'5 and 210 pounds, Wilton's ace pitcher can be an intimidating force on the mound.

"He has a commanding presence," Eagen said. "What has been happening the last couple years is that he has become a pitcher (rather than just a thrower). He has become more of a complete pitcher. He has a good slider and he's worked really hard on his curve."

Ketley expects that when Marut heads to a top flight college program - UConn boasts one of the top teams in the Big East Conference - he should be able to add another mile or two to his already blazing fastball.

Through Thursday, UConn sported a 40-11 record and was tied for first place in the Big East with Pittsburgh.  The Huskies are a lock for postseason play, even if they don't win the  conference tournament.

UConn coach Jim Penders certainly was impressed by what he saw during the recruiting process.

"He's a very poised kid, very mature for his age," Penders said. "His poise was the thing that stood out right away."

The Huskies graduate two senior pitchers and their top starter, junior Elliot Glynn, is expected to go in the early rounds of this year's major league draft and could be playing professional ball later in the summer.

That means there will be some openings on the Huskies' staff next spring and Penders fully expects that Marut will compete for innings, even as a freshman.

"He's good a pretty good fastball," Penders said. "He's also got a good slider, a slurve, that he can command."

But Marut will be facing plenty of competition as one of four freshman pitchers heading into the UConn program in the fall. Three of those pitchers are from the stat, including Brian Ward of Foran High School in Milford and Dave Mahoney from Bacon Academy in Colchester.

"I just want to go in and just get some innings," said Marut, who chose UConn over Dartmouth, Villanova, Fordham and Quinnipiac. "(If I) go to the pen, that's fine. I just want to throw well in the fall and see what happens for me in the spring. I can't force anything."

Of course, there is some unfinished business remaining at Wilton after the Warriors were bounced out of the FCIAC playoffs in the first round last season by eventual league champion Staples. It was Wilton's first appearance in the FCIAC tournament  since 2002.

"We want to get to the FCIAC finals," Marut said. "We want to be at Harbor Yard," in Bridgeport, the site of the FCIAC championship game.