BEAUMONT — Consider how far Billy Love has come in two years.
The soon-to-be 24-year-old blew out his right rotator cuff in his first game pitching for Lamar and underwent surgery, drawing a medical redshirt for 2014. In five appearances last year, he started once and threw only six innings, allowing seven earned runs on six hits on his way to a 0-1 record and 10.50 ERA.
In this, his final season in Beaumont, Love has thrown two complete games — and he’s 4-2 with a 2.68 ERA.
Not only that, Lamar (29-10, 14-4 Southland) is just one game behind leader Southeastern Louisiana in a heated conference race.
“It feels good to be at this point,” Love said. “This is the most relentless team I’ve played on.”
Love has proven relentless in his comeback from injury to command the Saturday starting role on Lamar’s pitching staff. He held Houston Baptist to two hits, struck out four and walked one in a complete-game, 8-0 win to begin a doubleheader.
Love previously went the distance against New Orleans on March 25, allowing one earned run on six hits in a 5-1 win.
“I felt pretty good,” Love said. “I got pretty good rest after last weekend since I didn’t throw as many innings as I’d like to [against McNeese State]. It’s a good bounce-back.”
The previous Saturday, McNeese tagged Love for four earned runs on five hits and drew two walks in 4 2/3 innings of a 5-4 Lamar defeat.
“I wouldn’t say I threw my best stuff against McNeese,” Love said. “I put the ball up [in the strike zone] a lot and gave up a lot of pitches that they hit.”
Lamar coach Jim Gilligan said Love stayed consistent with his mechanics in earning the win at Houston Baptist. Ever the pitching guru, the longtime skipper analyzed Love’s progress from losing his first decision of the season.
“His mechanics were better,” Gilligan said. “Up at Northwestern [State], his mechanics were horrible, and he had a horrible outing.”
The numbers at Northwestern State for Love: three earned runs on four hits, including two doubles, in just one-third of an inning.
“Then, we come back, he has a great outing, great mechanics,” Gilligan said.
While the McNeese game wasn’t his best, Love worked out other kinks in his pitching.
“But I think we have it pinpointed right now to where I think he will stay in what he’s doing,” Gilligan said. “When he does that, the ball is down and the slider has a tight break. When he does what he does wrong, … the breaking ball slows down, and he doesn’t have the command of it. And the fastball starts getting up in the zone.”
Love struck out four against Houston Baptist, but that was up from two against McNeese. His season high is eight in a successful five-inning decision at Abilene Christian.
The Elgin, Oklahoma, native is having his best collegiate season yet. He went 5-2 with a 3.86 ERA and 53 strikeouts in his second season at Seminole State College, where he was teammates with current Lamar senior righty Ryan Cawthon.
Love’s first three outings this year were no-decisions, but he pitched well enough to become a weekend starter. Coming from a tough injury two years ago, that in itself is a victory.
“That was the worst year of my life, sitting back and having to watch the team struggle,” Love said of 2014. “There was nothing I could do about it because I was sitting on the bench.”