Doelling, Rider ready for encore

Frank Doelling remembers the text he got from his Rider pitching coach Mike Petrowski. He was on his way to work at Sonny Pittaro Field when Doelling got the message that changed his summer.

After a long grind of a 2021 Spring season that ended with a gem at the NCAA Tournament, Doelling had decided to shut it down for a few months. The talented lefty decided to get stronger and got a job working on the grounds crew at his college field, where the MLB Draft League Trenton Thunder played most of its home games. Petrowski served as pitching coach for that team, too.

So Doelling checked in with his mentor when he arrived at the field. The message was simple. "Do you want," Petrowski wondered, "to pitch in the Cape (Cod League)?"

The young hurler needed about 0.2 seconds to answer.

"I've wanted to pitch in the Cape my whole life," Doelling said. "That's where the best of the best go and play. I wasn't expecting it at all. I had just picked up some light throwing the week before after shutting it down for awhile once the season was over."

The rising Rider senior got to throw in three games down the stretch for the Bourne Braves and acquitted himself well, allowing just three hits and one earned run in 5 1/3 innings out of the pen.

"That first day, I was sitting out in the bullpen, thinking 'this is actually happening,' " Doelling said. "There's like 2,500 people in the stands, kids coming up, signing 10-15 autographs a night. It's unreal. You're living the life of a pro baseball player. I just wanted to attack, attack, attack. Wood bat league, odds are they're not going to hit you around if you hit your spots, if you dictate the at bats. So just go up there and shove. And do it in front of big crowds, in front of 20-25 scouts, assistant GMs, crosscheckers each game. It was a chance to show out and put myself on the radar a bit more."

Doelling's first chance to get on everyone's radar came about a month earlier, in early June, as Rider swept to the MAAC Conference title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2010.

Game 1 didn't go well. The Broncs got caught in an outpouring of emotion from host Louisiana Tech and that was understandable. It was a crazy night in Ruston as the Bulldogs hosted a Regional for the first time ever in a stadium that was demolished by a tornado two years earlier and completely rebuilt. Rider lost 18-2 and had to face mighty Alabama, from the powerful SEC, the next day.

"I remember sitting in my room in the hotel that night thinking how I'm going to pitch in the NCAA Regional the next day against one of the top SEC schools in the country," Doelling said. "That there was no way I was going to back down. I had been waiting my whole career for this and this was my moment."

Indeed it was. The kid who somehow was criminally underrecruited in high school - try a grand total of ZERO offers from NCAA schools and received his only shot from then-RCBC coach Mike Scanzano - shoved all game long on the sport's biggest stage. Rider scored in the top of the first on a Sean McGeehan double and while Doelling may not have had his best stuff, he had darn good stuff, and he was in control. He allowed just three hits into the 7th, left when it was 1-1, and while Alabama scored a couple late for a 3-1 win, the Broncs had an honest-to-goodness ace on their hands. The kind who can keep you in the game no matter who you're playing.

"He had his B stuff that day," said Petrowski, who coached Frank for a season at RCBC after Scanzano left, and then recruited Doelling to Rider when he got the pitching coach job there after the 2019 season. "It just shows how good he can be. He goes 1-1 into the 7th against an SEC team without his best stuff. It shows he can win against the best without his A game, and that's a sign of a big future.

"What makes Frank so great is how competitive he is and his will to win," Petrowski said. "He's the nicest and most easygoing guy there is, but in between those lines he has learned to put the blinders on and compete like hell."

Wouldn't expect anything else from someone with a chip on his shoulder, someone whose sports hero is Tom Brady.

This is an exciting time at Rider, as Doelling has very much lifted himself up onto the draft boards, a Day 3 choice (Rounds 11-20) certainly in the cards with a strong 2022 season. And also because the Broncs have so much returning from last year's team that may have tasted success a year early, but hey, that's baseball, and you never really know - you just try to capture lightning in a bottle and be prepared when it's time to shine. The Broncs got that taste but left Ruston hungry for more.

Of course the MAAC will be tougher than ever in 2022. In-state rival Monmouth wants its taste too, with a "Four Aces" pitching staff and veteran lineup. Fairfield was America's darling last year, started the season 27-0, and earned the MAAC's first-ever NCAA Tournament at large bid, where it won a game at Regionals. The Stags will be very good again in 2022, and so will Marist which may have been as good as anyone in the conference last year, except that COVID played shambles with its season.

So goal No. 1 for Doelling and crew is the MAAC title once again, but this time there's no sneaking up on anybody.

"We have that experience in big games now, we've been there, we know what it feels like," Doelling said. "We're going to have a target on our back now. We go from being the hunter to the hunted, but I think we have a group of guys who can handle that. I feel like we have the guys to make another run and it's going to be so much fun, I can't wait."

Doelling has his personal goals as well, to increase his odds of hearing his name called at the end of June next year. Improve the changeup. Take it from being a good, but inconsistent pitch to "any time, any hitter" territory. The fastball could use a few ticks, but it's pretty much there. The slider is deadly. Three plus pitches would be a gamechanger.

"He's humble, he works very hard, and he competes with a healthy arrogance when he gets in the game," head coach Barry Davis said. "His goal should be to be our Friday (Game 1) starter and draw interest from professional scouts to potentially get drafted. He also should set his sights on being all-conference, first-team, MAAC Pitcher of the Year."

No doubt he will. No chance Doelling would settle for anything less.