How Liam Doyle's fastball makes Tennessee's ace college baseball's top strikeout pitcher
Liam Doyle picks up a baseball and spins it into position.
The Tennessee pitcher places his index and middle fingers across the seams, slightly angled to intersect the horseshoe formed by the seams. It rests easily with his thumb underneath and his ring and pinky fingers to the side.
That is how Doyle grips his fastball. He says it is a generic four-seam fastball. The only thing generic about it is how he holds it. In Doyle’s left hand, it becomes exceptional and nearly unhittable.
Doyle throws the pitch with a wicked combination of high velocity and baffling movement, leading to a unicorn pitch — the invisiball.
“It is a fastball that spins a lot,” Doyle said. “It has induced vertical break. It is going to get on hitters faster than looks. It is very deceiving — I think that is a good word for what an invisiball is.”
Doyle is the best strikeout pitcher in college baseball with an arsenal centered on his elite fastball as No. 4 Tennessee (29-4, 9-3 SEC) faces No. 7 Ole Miss (26-7, 8-4) in a three-game series starting Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) in Oxford.
The ace of the Vols’ staff leads the nation with 81 strikeouts. The Ole Miss transfer has gotten 60 strikeouts with his fastball, a seemingly invisible pitch that hitters can't handle.
How Liam Doyle honed throwing an invisible fastball
Doyle didn’t throw his fastball like this when he came to college.
He hurled a two-seamer, which got him from Pinkerton Academy in Derry, New Hampshire, to Coastal Carolina. It was a solid pitch but did something surprising. Two-seamers typically feature armside run or sink. For the left-handed Doyle, the pitch should have tailed down and away from right-handed hitters.
Doyle’s two-seamer had induced vertical break, giving it the appearance of rising to hitters.
“It doesn’t technically rise, but it does to them,” Doyle said.
A typical fastball drops during the 60 feet, 6 inches between home plate because of gravity’s pull. Doyle’s holds to the plane it starts on, which makes it appear to rise or hop.
Doyle’s coaches at CCU were shocked watching his two-seamer generate 18 inches of IVB, meaning the fastball dropped 18 inches less than the hitter expects. They suggested switching to a four-seam grip. He threw a few bullpens and got 21-22 inches of IVB. It has been up to 26 inches at Tennessee.
The 6-foot-2, 220-pound lefty gets the ride from a crazy spin rate that surpasses normal MLB fastballs. He averages 2,400 revolutions per minute and has reached 2,650 RPMs, well over the pro average of 2,300. He tries to pull down as he throws it from a three-quarters release point instead of coming across the ball.
The backspin Doyle gets on his fastball manufactures the mirage of rising.
High fastballs get hitters to swing under the pitch. Low fastballs stay in the strike zone when hitters expect them to drop. The pitch consistently creates ugly and uncomfortable swings.
"It gets on hitters faster than it should,” Doyle said. “If I throw a fastball at 95 miles per hour, it looks closer to 100 because I have so much ride and a high spin rate. It is hard for a hitter to time up coming from a funky lefty arm slot.”
How Liam Doyle has elevated his pitching with Tennessee baseball
Doyle struck out 11 batters per nine innings as a freshman at Coastal Carolina. He upped that mark to 13.7 as a sophomore at Ole Miss.
He leads college baseball with 17.1 strikeouts per nine innings as a junior at UT.
“If you have an elite fastball, you can be an elite pitcher,” Doyle said.
Doyle’s fastball is even better with the Vols — and he is a better pitcher for being at Tennessee.
He made major adjustments to his physique with nutritionist Beth Schwartz and strength coach Quentin Eberhardt. His fastball velocity jumped from an average of 93.5 mph last season to near 96 — and he is maintaining it throughout games. He has hit 99.5 mph.
"I have always had good arm talent and been able to get through SEC lineups with my arm and confidence,” Doyle said. “You bring all of that and you put it in with the weight training and the right coaching staff and the right people to put you in a good situation to succeed, that is why I am here."
Doyle has made minor adjustments to his pitch grips through working with pitching coach Frank Anderson, director of pitching performance Josh Reynolds and quality control analyst Kirby Connell. He credits Anderson with his improved offspeed pitches.
Video coordinator Sean McCann and director of analytics Zach Stovall helped Doyle match his release point for all his pitches. His slider was coming out lower than his fastball; his splitter was over the top.
His whole repertoire plays off his fastball, but he can deploy all his pitches to the dismay of opponents.
“It gives you the confidence in any pitch you throw that they are thinking here comes a fastball, I have to gear up for it,” Doyle said.
Liam Doyle has cemented himself as a top MLB draft pick
Doyle holds a cellphone and watches the pitch.
It’s March 1 at Houston’s Daikin Park, the morning after Doyle flummoxed Oklahoma State with nine strikeouts in 4⅓ scoreless innings.
He explains the fastball he threw to Cowboys cleanup hitter Jayson Jones in a 1-2 count in the fourth inning. He threw a slider the pitch before. He came back to his fastball in the same tunnel as the slider. It looked like it was headed down and in, but had significant vertical break and horizontal movement.
Jones had no chance, swinging under the fastball as it beelined high and away.
“A lot of hitters look at that pitch and think it will drop in maybe at the top of the zone or stay at the top,” Doyle said. “It stays above the bat. You get bad swings on it. That wasn’t a strike or in the zone. But he swings and misses at it.”
Doyle (5-1, 2.53 ERA) has done that all season as Tennessee's Friday starter. He struck out 11 against Hofstra on opening day and hasn’t slowed down. He has four starts with double-digit strikeouts. He has struck out at least eight in seven of eight starts.
He has recorded 63.3% of outs via strikeout and has struck out 47.5% of the batters he has faced. Hitters whiff on 45% of the fastballs when they swing, struggling both to time the pitch and to get on the right plane to hit it.
Doyle is rising up MLB draft boards with the fastball carrying him toward being a potential top-10 selection in July. As it rises, so does he — with a pitch that is anything but generic.
“I am going to win or lose with my pitch — and that is my pitch,” Doyle said.
Mike Wilson covers University of Tennessee athletics. Email him at michael.wilson@knoxnews.com and follow him on X @ByMikeWilson or Bluesky @bymikewilson.bsky.social. If you enjoy Mike’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that will allow you access to all of it.