Temple Product Hockenberry Closing Things Down At Lakewood

By Matt Leon

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Matt Hockenberry was a member of the last baseball team at Temple University before they discontinued the program in 2014. He was the ace of the staff for the Owls as a senior and his success caught the attention of the Phillies who selected him in the 9th round of the 2014 MLB Draft.

Hockenberry has spent the 2015 season with Single-A Lakewood and he has had a really good year, serving as the closer for the BlueClaws. In 34 appearances, Hockenberry is 4-3 with 14 saves and a 2.20 ERA. He has 42 strikeouts in 45 innings while holding opponents to a .186 batting average.

"I'm having a blast," Hockenberry tells KYW Newsradio. "We've got a great group of guys here on this team. Right now we're working towards the playoff push, we're only (six) games out of first place (in the South Atlantic League's Northern Division) and our obvious goal is to win the second half for a shot at the playoffs."

Listen: Matt Hockenberry with KYW's Matt Leon

The 23-year-old Hockenberry spent most of his time at Temple as a starter and he says the transition to pitching out of the bullpen full time was a difficult one, at first, last year.

"Last year I struggled a little bit out of the bullpen in Lakewood," Hockenberry says. "Got my first little taste of what Single-A ball was like and got hit around a little bit. I think that was because I was saving pitches in the tank, kind of like a starter. You know you can get away with using two or three pitches though the first four or five innings before you break out that fourth pitch, if you have one. I was being real conservative instead of going full tilt, full-time coming into the game."

He credits Aaron Fultz, Lakewood's pitching coach, who also worked with him last year when he went down to Short Season-A Williamsport, with helping him round into form as a reliever.

Hockenberry breaks down what's been working for him this season.

"Definitely my fastball," Hockenberry says. "Not because it's overpowering, but because I can locate it really well. It gets hit around when I miss my spots, but what pitch doesn't get hit when you miss your spot. Being able to attack guys on the inside part of the strike zone, really try to get it under their hands or keep it down at the knees inside, rolling a lot of ground balls. My curveball is definitely my out pitch, but I've also used my slider and my change-up depending on who I'm facing."

Hockenberry says the adrenalin rush when he comes into the game is his favorite part of being a closer. He adds that one of his favorite closers to watch as he was growing up was Brian Wilson, who had some dominant seasons with the San Francisco Giants.

"He referred to (closing) as a gladiator lifestyle," Hockenberry says. "You're going out there and you have one job to do and that's get three outs, the last three outs of the game. Doesn't matter if they're three outs that are almost home runs that get caught or whether they're three strikeouts. You're trying to get three outs without letting that other team score."

And Hockenberry does that a lot.

Lakewood visits the West Virginia Power tonight.

You can follow Matt on Twitter @mattleonkyw.