49er Coach Makes Biddle a Believer Too : West regional: Snow’s faith in his pitcher has helped the Long Beach State freshman turn his season around.

So confident was the teacher that his commitment and patience to the student never wavered, although there certainly was cause for doubt.

So dedicated was the student to himself and his mentor that his focus remained constant during some unsettling performances.

And so fortunate is the Long Beach State baseball team that Coach Dave Snow believed in freshman pitcher Rocky Biddle, which kept Biddle believing in himself. Biddle is doing just fine, to say the least, and his continued development is especially important now.

Second-seeded Long Beach (35-23-1) plays fifth-seeded Southwest Missouri State (37-19) today at 3:30 p.m. in the first round of the NCAA West Regional at Fresno State. Biddle expects to start the second-round game Friday, an assignment for which he is quite eager.

“Coach [Snow] told me to be ready for Friday and I will be,” Biddle said. “Everything has been going great lately. I try not to think about it too much, but, honestly, it feels great.”

Biddle is entitled to feel good. His college career began slowly, but he rebounded well. Biddle is 5-1 with a 3.99 earned-run average in 14 starts and three relief appearances.

He emerged as the 49ers’ dominant pitcher over the last month of the regular season, winning consecutive Big West Conference pitcher of the week awards in May. Biddle pitched complete games in three of his last four starts, two of which were shutouts, striking out 14 in each.

“I thought that the night we saw him [in the conference tournament] was one of the finest performances I’ve seen in the 13 years I’ve been here,” Nevada Coach Gary Powers said. “I mean, he was just dominant.

“He was throwing three pitches [fastball, curve, changeup] for strikes whenever he wanted. If you can throw a 3-2 breaking ball for a strike any time you want, that’s going to freeze most college hitters.”

Biddle struck out 57 in his last five starts covering 40 innings, an average of 12.8 strikeouts per nine innings. He finished second on the team in strikeouts with 112 in 99 1/3 innings, and is second on the all-time Big West list for strikeouts in a season by a freshman. Eric Schullstrom of Fresno State set the record with 146 in 1988.

Biddle broke the school record for scoreless innings with 33 1/3 over his last four starts.

All this from a guy who only two months ago couldn’t do much right. Biddle (6 feet 2, 205 pounds) consistently throws in the low 90s--but that’s not much help when most of your pitches are outside the strike zone.

As with lots of hard-throwing youngsters, Biddle, who recently celebrated his 19th birthday, needed to improve his control and develop other pitches to complement his fastball. Unlike the hitters Biddle faced when he pitched for San Gabriel Temple City High, most Division I batters can catch up with even the best fastballs.

“You have to keep hitters off-balance in college,” Biddle said. “Here, most people just sit there and time your fastball. I could just strike out guys in high school with my fastball.”

Biddle struggled while Snow and 49er pitching coach Steve Rousey taught him to throw a changeup and worked on his motion. His repertoire was expanding but his ERA was still ballooning.

“It was real frustrating for me in the beginning,” Biddle said. “Being a freshman, you want to prove yourself to your coach. You want your coach to have confidence in you.

“I had a lot of tough breaks, but I believed I could do it. I knew it was only a matter of time.”

He knew because Snow told him so.

“We knew there would be some growing pains with Rocky and he had some control problems,” Snow said. “But the reason we stuck with him, the main thing, was that he never got rattled.

“A lot of times as a coach, you can make a commitment to stay with a kid. But the player forces you to make a move if he stops going out there with confidence.

“We kept handing him the ball because he never lost that. And the guys never lost that belief in him.”

Of course, there was good reason to believe Biddle would come around.

“No one on the team is surprised,” sophomore reliever Justin Siegel said. “I mean, he’s got a great arm and incredible talent. He completely dominated in the fall [workouts].”

Biddle appreciates that Snow stuck with him, and is determined to repay his coach.

“Coach Snow has taught me a lot,” Biddle said. “It’s real rewarding to do good and have him come up and shake your hand with a grin on his face.”