EDWARDSVILLE - Edwardsville's Matthew Boyer signed on with Milwaukee on Wednesday, a member of the Horizon League, to play for head coach Scott Doffek.
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“Matthew was a right-handed pitcher for us last year,” said Tiger head coach Tim Funkhouser, “and he ended up being one of our key contributors, and was on the bump in our last game of the year, the regional championship game, and he features a fastball that’s middle 80s to above middle 80s, and his breaking pitch, he really spins his breaking pitch well. And he continues to fill out his frame, and a mature kid as far as emotionally doesn’t get rattled, just likes to go out there and compete.”
Boyer is very excited to play for the Panthers next season.
“I got interested from them at the PBR camp in Chicago,” Boyer said, “and I took a visit up there, and I really like their pitching coach, coach (Cory) Bigler. He’s a really smart dude, and I think it was a really good fit for me.”
There were other factors involved in Boyer’s decision.
“They’re getting new facilities, also, which those are really nice,” Boyer said, “and their overall coaching staff was really good, I could tell.”
Another factor was the city of Milwaukee itself, which was a determining factor for Boyer over Xavier University in Cincinnati.
“Milwaukee was a really cool city when I visited it,’ Boyer said. “I liked it more than Cincinnati.”
Boyer started realizing that pitching would be his specialty in his sophomore year.
“Pitching probably didn’t hit until more like my sophomore year,” Boyer said. “So I realized that pitching was meant for me, and then, I just really fell in love with it.”
Boyer feels that the key to his success on the mound is getting ahead in the count with secondary pitches that sets up his fastball
“Just getting down secondary pitches, and getting ahead with them,” Boyer said, “because whenever you get to a 0-2 count with off-speed, then it’s usually over from there.”
Boyer hopes to major in either business or engineering.
