Brandon Williamson pitch tonight for Cincinnati Reds; first-ever NIACC Trojan to play in major leagues

DENVER, CO – Former NIACC pitcher Brandon Williamson will make his major league debut Tuesday night.

Williamson, who pitched for the Trojans in 2017-18, was called up to the Cincinnati Reds where he will be the starter against the Colorado Rockies in Denver. Game time is slated for 7:40 p.m.

Williamson will be the first NIACC baseball player to play in the major leagues.

Even though Williamson’s statistics with the Triple-A Louisville Bats haven’t been to his liking, the Reds are giving the 6-foot-6 inch southpaw a chance at the Major League level.

“After April I looked back and said, wow, my stats suck, but I do feel pretty good,” Williamson was quoted as saying in the Cincinnati Enquirer. “I think that people, coaches around me saw some things moving in the right way even though the results weren’t coming at all.

“Then the last few starts, it all started just gelling together. I feel really confident and really comfortable with being here now.”

Williamson, who is on the Reds’ 40-man roster, has spent the 2023 season so far with the Triple-A Louisville Bats.

Williamson is 2-4 with 27 strikeouts and 20 walks in 34 innings pitched this season. The 25-year old from Fairmont, Minn. has started eight games for the Bats this season with a 6.62 earned run average.

In his last start last Thursday against the Columbus Clippers, Williamson earned his second win of the season in a 5 2/3 solid innings of work. Williamson allowed a single run on six hits, striking out four while walking three.

In his last two starts including the one against the Clippers, Williamson has allowed nine hits and four runs in 11 2/3 innings with 11 strikeouts.

The Reds, who are 18-23 and in fourth place in the National League Central, are seeking a starting pitcher in their rotation short after Nick Lodolo, Williamson’s college teammate at TCU, went on the 15-day injured list with a calf injury that will sideline him for at least a month.

“If you’re here, you have a chance,” Cincinnati Reds’ co-minor league pitching coordinator Casey Weathers said of Williamson in August of 2022. “Obviously, he was a big piece of the trade in spring training for us with the (Jesse) Winker deal.”

In March of 2022, Williamson, who was a second round pick by the Seattle Mariners in 2019, was traded to the Reds’ organization along with outfielder Jake Fraley for Winker, an outfielder, and third baseman Eugenio Suarez.

Williamson started the 2022 season with the Reds’ Double-A affiliate Chattanooga Lookouts, was called up to the Triple-A Bats in July of 2022.

Williamson, who attended Martin County West High School in Sherburn, Minn., was a 36th round pick by the Milwaukee Brewers in the 2018 MLB Draft, but chose to attend TCU.

At TCU in 2019, Williamson was an honorable mention all-Big 12 selection. He was 4-5 with a 4.10 earned run average in 77 1/3 innings pitched with 89 strikeouts and 36 walks.

While at NIACC, Williamson won 12 games and is the school’s career strikeout leader with 151.

“I went to NIACC with no scholarship,” Williamson said in August of 2022. “It was just kind of a chance piece. I owe (former NIACC head coach) Travis Hergert a lot.

“He saw something that could possibly happen and is happening now. It allowed me to work hard and to grow and to be with the right people to help me get me where I am now.”

Hergert, who is now the Philadelphia Phillies minor league pitching coordinator, first saw Williamson pitch at a town ball game in the summer after he graduated from high school.

“He wasn’t a big velo guy, but he threw strikes,” Hergert said. “He was left-handed, he was 6-6 and showed some athleticism.”

And now Tuesday night, the former NIACC walk-on will make his MLB debut.

“He’s talented,” Reds Manager David Bell was quoted as saying in the Cincinnati Enquirer. “Spring training didn’t go exactly how he wanted it to, and I think that carried over into the beginning of the season, but he continued to work at it.

“Sometimes you work so hard to get here and there is a lot of pressure to get to this point. Now it just becomes about the game, going out and winning a baseball game, and letting your ability and your talent take over.”