Ben Joyce has been blown away by Tennessee fans like he likes to blow through opposing batters. Fast.
Joyce was barely recognisable by the masses before Tennessee became the most talked about team in college baseball. The junior pitcher was just another guy. Then, the Vols surged to No. 1 and Joyce threw the pitch heard around the world – a 105.5 mph pitch on May 2 against Auburn.
Since then, things have changed for Joyce. He’s now a star in the making drifting around campus and Knoxville just like a regular old Joe. The problem is he’s not ordinary. That means fading into a crowd is much tougher to do.
Here are some OTH Takeaways from his interview during Off The Hook Sports.
If Jones wasn’t playing this weekend, he might just sit back and watch the display of pitching prowess. The Tennessee-Notre Dame Super Regional is chalk full of talented hurlers.
“I think it’s going to be fun. They seem like a really good team from what I’ve seen. The environment is going to be really electric with our fans. I think it’s going to be a really good series pitching wise. They have a great pitching staff. It looks like their offense can find ways to score runs too so I think it’s going to be a pretty exciting series this weekend.
Joyce has been blown away but Tennessee fans.
“We’re selling out midweek games. Before the year, I don’t think anyone would have known who I was if I walked into a restaurant. I went to see the Top Gun (Maverick) movie the other day and people recognized me there. It’s been really cool the way the Tennessee fans have embraced this whole team…It has been a crazy experience.”
Joyce didn’t need a sequel to Top Gun to appreciate it.
“Oh my gosh, that was such a great movie. I’m a big Top Gun fan. I thought they made it really well. It was a really good movie. That’s (the original) one of my favorite movies actually.”
“My freshman year of tryouts, I was throwing like 65(mph). Then I started growing and I think my senior year I got up to 91 or 92. Then the summer after my senior year, I got up to 95, then just kind of started creeping up from there. It wasn’t anything like that in high school”
Joyce had never thrown a 105-mph pitch until that game against Auburn, at least not that he’s aware of.
“I was getting close right before the season started, but I never did it in an actual game that I knew of until the Auburn series. That was the first time I threw it in a game. I saw the number and it kind of hit me. Wow, that’s pretty crazy. I never would have thought that would happen. I could have done it before without a radar gun but that’s the first time I saw it on a radar gun.”
The follow up to the pitch was intense as the news went viral. That meant Joyce had to adjust some settings on his phone.
“I had to turn all my notifications on Twitter and Instagram off because it kind of blew up…It was crazy for a little bit. I just had to turn everything off and get away from all the Twitter stuff.”
The Auburn pitch wasn’t the only time Joyce remembers hitting a milestone He vividly recalls throwing 100 mph at Walters State Community College.
“I was throwing and I saw my coach pull out his phone and start recording. I was like, “Oh, that’s kind of weird. I’ve never seen that before. Then, after the inning, I saw the video…That was a pretty cool experience to know that I got up to triple digits for the first time. That was exciting but now it’s kind of like I almost don’t remember what that felt like now that I’m up here now.”
Joyce didn’t always throw hard – not even a little bit. He only hit 65 mph when he was trying out in high school. Then, he grew and the number on the radar gun kept rising.
“The summer after my senior year, I got up to 95 (mph) then just kind of started creeping up for there. It wasn’t anything like that in high school.”
