Watertown's Brian Casey is Trying to Throw the Reds into the Intercity League Playoff

If hitting a 95 m.p.h. fastball is one of the hardest things to do in sports, then locating it exactly where it needs to be on the inside or outside corner of the plate has to be equally challenging ... doesn't it?

Or, how about dropping a curve ball so that it starts at the batter's eyes and ends up popping the catcher's mitt at their knees.

Doing it once is hard, doing it on a consistent basis against quality opponents is even harder.

The Intercity Baseball League has been around for over 50 years, and is one of the most competitive amateur baseball leagues in the state.

In Watertown, the Reds are lucky enough to have one of the best pitchers in the league right now taking the hill for them every fourth of fifth day.

Brian Casey is the defending Pitcher of the Year in the league, having posted a 1.13 ERA, a baffling 84 strikeouts, just eight walks, and 13 runs (10 of them earned) last year en route to a 6-1-1 record. This year, while some of his numbers are down, he still pitches like his award winning performance from a year ago.

With two games left in the season, Casey sits at 7-2 with a 1.60 ERA. He's walked just seven batters and has 44 strikeouts.  

He is tied with Jared Freni of the Andre Chiefs for the most wins, and sits in sixth for the league's lowest ERA among pitchers. On top of that, he sits in third place for strikeouts, and leads the league in innings pitched, proving his durability whenever he is handed the ball.

If you've lost track, his overall body of work in the regular season reads:

• 13-3-1 in 21 games.  
• 128 strikeouts to just 15 walks.  
• An ERA of 1.35, and
• just 23 earned runs.

Not bad huh?

Although the regular season achievements are nice, Casey's most important numbers as the regular season comes to a close for Watertown this week are his playoff numbers.  

In four postseason games for the Reds last year, Casey went 3-1, giving up just four runs, and only one of them was actually earned. He struck out 24 hitters in just 22 innings of work while only walking one.

As a manager, you can't ask much more from a guy like Casey.

"He's been phenomenal for us in his time here," Reds manager Joe Chiodo said. "We ask him to take the ball and work some solid innings for us, and he just goes out there and competes, every time he's on the mound the kid is going to battle. The guys playing behind him appreciate it and it makes their job easier and more fun as well."

Casey has won his last five starts in a row, going the full seven innings in four of them. In those five wins, he's recorded 27 strikeouts. His last outing was a masterful nine-K, four hit, shutout performance on Saturday against the Reading Bulldogs.

As the Reds look to enter the playoffs next week, there is no doubt that Brian Casey will be an integral part to any success that Watertown is going to have in trying to capture the 2011 ICL championship.