Baseball: New role has Palms sweating

But the man on the mound, senior pitcher David Palms, has never recorded a save in his Princeton college career.

“The most fun thing about being a closer is the pressure at the end of the game,” Palms said. “To come out against 6,500 fans in the bottom of the ninth inning and face a situation where if you give up two runs you lose, and if you give up no runs you win, as a pitcher that’s nerve-wracking but it’s also a lot of fun.”

Palms has played baseball since he was a four-year-old kid growing up in Smithfield, R.I. A lifelong Boston Red Sox fan whose mother played softball in college, Palms originally wanted to be a shortstop. But as competition became more intense and his left-handedness made playing shortstop difficult, he became a pitcher.

“I was kind of forced into the pitcher’s role, and I actually haven’t played another position since high school,” Palms said.

Despite visiting 18 different schools, the decision to attend Princeton was a no-brainer for Palms.

“Princeton was far and away my number-one choice. I loved the area, I loved the campus, and [head] coach [Scott] Bradley is a Major League veteran of nine years,” Palms said. “Coming here I knew that not only is it a great program, but it would also give me a shot at playing later.”

Palms was successful coming out of the bullpen during his freshman year at Princeton, allowing just 11 earned runs in 30.2 innings. He relied on a fastball-changeup combination for an even stronger sophomore year as a starter, going 5-2 with a 3.06 ERA and 28 strikeouts. He focused on freezing batters with inside fastballs to get strikeouts because right-handed hitters normally expect left-handed pitchers to throw outside.

“I loved being a starting pitcher because you’re given the ball for that game, and that game’s yours,” Palms said. “It’s one of the only opportunities in sports where it’s your game if you win, and it’s your fault if you lose. There’s a lot of pressure with that, but also a lot of pride and responsibility.”

Statistically speaking, his junior year was not as strong, a fact which he attributes partly to switching up his style to try to impress scouts from professional teams.

“It’s their job, but scouts tend to look more for speed and how hard you throw the ball, instead of if you pitch 84-85 [miles per hour] with command and multiple pitches,” Palms said. “I completely changed the way I am as a pitcher — I’m not the pitcher that throws 92 miles per hour, but I like to hit corners and get people out with more strategy than just throwing fastballs.”

The decision to move Palms to the closing role was motivated both by a desire to get Palms into as many games as possible and the talented group of underclassman starters on the roster this year.

“It was more need than anything else. David has a resilient arm and he likes to be out there in big situations,” Bradley said. “If he pitches as a starter he would pitch just one game a weekend, but this is a way that we could possibly use him in two, three or possibly even four games because he’s got that type of arm.”

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Palms said he has switched up his approach again to adapt to the new role of a closer. As a starter, he would try to throw primarily one pitch to each batter the first time around and then a different one the second time through the order, preventing opponents from growing accustomed to any pitch type. Now, he says, he will go after each batter with everything he has.

“As a closer, most likely I’m going to see each hitter once. Because of that, I’m pitching more towards my strength and what pitch works best in that individual situation,” Palms said. “Every day you go in knowing that I can get the ball in a one-run or two-run situation and get my team the win.”

Teammate and close friend Matt Connor, a senior pitcher, said Palms’ competitiveness suits him well for the role of closer and also helps motivate the other members of the team.

“He’s one of the most competitive kids I’ve ever met. He wants to beat you all the time,” Connor said. “He’s willing to work hard in the weight room, and he’s willing to talk trash to you to get you to work harder because he really cares about baseball, and he really wants us to do well.”

Palms hopes to be drafted by a Major League club this June and play professional baseball for a few years. While he was in contact with over 20 teams last year, Palms has been in touch with eight teams this year, including his beloved Sox.

If he is not drafted this summer, Palms said he hopes to do service work for a few years before continuing his education. He applied to Teach for America and will hear back soon. “My goal is to do something different for two years, something outside of school that is able to help somebody out,” Palms said.

For the past two seasons, his walkout song has been the Dropkick Murphys; “I’m Shipping Up to Boston,” an homage to Red Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon. However, He tries to model himself after the World Series champion San Francisco Giants’ closer Brian Wilson.

“He just goes out there and says, ‘I’m going to attack the hitter. It’s a one-on-one challenge between me and the hitter, and I’m going to get you out.’ That’s the mentality that I hope to bring to my play,” Palms said.

Palms struck out that final batter in the game against LSU, recording his first career save in what he recalls as his fondest memory so far in a Princeton uniform.

“The fact that there were 6,500 screaming fans there, being able to hold the ball and strike someone out in the bottom of the ninth, up 8-7, with a full count, two outs, getting the strikeout was an amazing feeling,” Palms said.

Nevertheless, if Princeton were to win the Ivy League championship this year, it would supplant this first save as his best memory of his Princeton career.

“I do not care about the draft or statistics or anything,” he said. “My only goal this year is to be able to leave Princeton University wearing an Ivy League championship ring, and that is all I’m working towards.”