One of those desert monsoons that hits Phoenix with a fury was bearing down as Mike Matusz drove his son Brian to the 12-year-old's all-star game.
Brian was Diamondback Little League's starting pitcher for the district championship game. The wind whipped up as the truck made its way along a dusty road.
Thunder clapped. And lightning lit up the pitch-black eastern sky.
“Geez, Brian, I don't know if we're going to get the game in,” Mike said.
“Nope,” Brian said. “It's not going to rain.
“Trust me. This is my day.”
Even at a young age, Brian Matusz was calm – and confident – before a storm.
Somehow, the rain stayed away. Matusz allowed one run in six innings to get the victory. He also went 3-for-3. All three hits were homers, the last coming when the opposing pitcher came too close to the plate on an intentional walk.
Some day, all right.
Today is expected to be another big day for Brian Matusz, who has focused more on his pitching since Little League.
USD's junior left-hander will be near a television with his teammates and coaches, watching the first round of the major league draft (ESPN2, 11 a.m.).
Matusz (pronounced MAT-us) has made something of a name for himself as a pitcher. He is among the five finalists for the Golden Spikes Award as the nation's top amateur baseball player. He is among another top five as well, expected to be among the first five picks when the two-day draft begins.
In fact, on the eve of the draft Matusz was one of three players – along with Florida State catcher Buster Posey and Griffin High (Ga.) shortstop Tim Beckham – Tampa Bay was considering for the No. 1 overall pick.
“I still have no idea where I'm going to go,” Matusz said. “It's pretty cool. It's like Christmas times a couple million.”
A local player has been the first pick overall twice – when the Florida Marlins chose Eastlake's Adrian Gonzalez in 2000 and when the Padres selected Mission Bay's Matt Bush in 2004.
Matusz would be the 40th local player – and first from USD – selected in the first round in the 44-year history of the draft.
Matusz, from Cave Creek, Ariz., was a fourth-round pick out of high school. He was drafted by the Angels, but contract talks broke down before they really began.
Matusz said he told each major league team before that draft that he would sign for $1.475 million. Not a penny less.
The comment at the time from Eddie Bane, director of scouting for the Angels: “He wanted first-round money. . . . He's not that kind of talent. At least not now.”
Little did anyone know that Matusz's goal wasn't just to become a first-round talent but the first pick overall.
“I don't think there's anything wrong with setting the bar high for yourself,” Matusz said. “I told myself that I was going to work hard every year so that by my junior year I could put myself in position to be the No. 1 pick in the draft.”
Said USD coach Rich Hill: “If I was picking, he would be.”
For several reasons.
“He's got that prototypical big-league body,” Hill said. “He's got velocity. He's got secondary pitches. . . . He could get major league hitters out right now. He could be a starter in the major leagues today.”
The 6-foot-5, 200-pound Matusz has four quality pitches – fastball, curve, slider, change-up – but two in particular get the most attention.
Matusz's fastball has touched 96 mph and usually is clocked between 91 and 93 mph. He locates it so well that many hitters are frozen at the plate. He thaws them with a change-up that makes hitters look so silly it seems they've swung before the ball has left his hand.
USD catcher and roommate Logan Gelbrich said despite his velocity, Matusz defies labeling.
“You can't really call him a power pitcher because you can't get in the box and know you're getting a fastball,” Gelbrich said. “He can beat you with every pitch.”
Matusz's maturation has been a three-year process that began with his first collegiate pitch. Make that the second pitch – his first pitch hit the backstop.
In the 2006 opener at home against Texas, Matusz made his debut by pitching the game's last four innings – retiring eight of the first nine hitters he faced – in USD's victory. It began a three-game sweep of the defending national champions.
Matusz was put in the weekend rotation soon thereafter and was the Friday starter by midseason.
He went 4-3 as a freshman with a 4.25 ERA, 93 strikeouts and 39 walks in 89 innings. But Matusz said the most important thing he learned is you don't always have to throw the ball by the hitter.
“I was trying to overpower guys,” Matusz said. “That's when I learned you have to relax, try to hit spots, work down in the zone and you'll be successful.”
Last year, he went 10-3 with a 2.85 ERA, 163 strikeouts (a school record) and 37 walks in 123 innings. He went 12-2 this season with a 1.58 ERA, 22 walks and a nation-leading 141 strikeouts in 105 innings.
Matusz may have saved his best for last. He pitched a three-hit shutout and struck out 10 in his final collegiate start, beating Cal 5-0 in last week's NCAA Tournament opener in Long Beach.
There were more than two dozen scouts in the stands at Blair Field to get a final glimpse of Matusz before the draft.
“In this type of environment and this type of stage, to do what he did was amazing,” Hill said after the game. “He pitches in front of general managers and owners of major league baseball teams. And he's locked in.
“He does not attach anything to an outing ever. He has the huge ability to detach from any kind of consequence and what's going on around him and deal.”
And approach each day as if it's his day.
Kirk Kenney: (619) 293-1825; kirk.kenney@uniontrib.com
