Pitcher Matt Buschmann, a four-year contributor under coach Tim Corbin, cracks the VandySports 100 at No. 86.
Honors and awards: 2006 All-Atlanta Regional
In the VU record book: Career wins: tied-seventh (23)
Career innings pitched: 10th (289.1)
Before VU: Buschmann attended Lafayette (Mo.) High, where he posted a 5-1 record, a 1.68 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 42 innings as a senior. Also hit .412 with three home runs and 19 RBIs. Made first-team all-conference as a pitcher and earned second-team honors as a hitter, earning honorable mention all-state.
Freshman (2003): Appeared 26 times (tied for the team high) with two starts. Finished a team-high 18 games. Went 2-1 with a 5.73 ERA with two saves in 22 Southeastern Conference innings. Pitched the final two innings and earned a save in the only perfect game in school history in a 4-0 win over Western Kentucky. Got first collegiate win in the home opener vs. ETSU, throwing an inning and allowing an earned run. Picked up a relief win vs. LSU by throwing four innings while allowing just two hits and a walk.
Sophomore (2004): Made 18 relief appearances and nine starts for a 45-19 team that made VU's first NCAA tournament appearance and advanced to the Austin Super Regional. Had a 4.02 ERA and a 3-0 record in 40 1/3 SEC innings. Went 7-0 as a starter. Threw a complete game shutout at No. 5 LSU, allowing just six hits in a game that had a 95-minute rain delay. Had seven strikeouts against both Belmont and Mississippi State. Threw 6 2/3 innings with four strikeouts and three walks, giving up three runs (all unearned).
Junior (2005): Made eight starts in 19 appearances. Threw 27 2/3 innings in SEC play with a 4.55 ERA, a 1-2 record and one save. Threw 8 2/3 innings in a 4-1 loss to Baylor.
Senior (2006): Made 14 starts and one relief appearance for a team that fell in the Atlanta Regional final. Started eight SEC regular-season games, going 2-3 with a 5.05 ERA in 51 2/3 innings. Threw a complete game in a 5-2 win over Michigan in VU's NCAA tournament opener.
Post-VU: Drafted in Round 15 by the Padres, Buschmann had a lengthy minor-league career and at one point, was the active strikeout leader in Minor League Baseball among players who'd never made the majors. (There's a great story about that at the now-defunct Grantland, here.) At age 32, Buschmann was finally called up and hurled 4 1/3 innings across three games for Arizona in 2016. That was his last year of professional baseball. Two years later, he became a bullpen coach for Toronto. In between all that, he married former WKRN/ESPN anchor Sara Walsh.
Final thoughts, and why I ranked him where I did: Buschmann pitched among more highly-regarded VU pitchers, including four (Jeremy Sowers, Jensen Lewis, Nick Christiani and David Price) who made the Majors, and two (Sowers, Price) who were All-Americans and first-round picks. Because of that, he was often taken for granted.
But by 2008 and 2009, when the VU pitching staff posted ERAs of 4.66 and 4.68 and struggled to find consistent second and third starters, Buschmann's contributions became a lot more appreciated in hindsight. College baseball was a much less pitcher-friendly environment after he left, but it also wasn't a pitching-friendly one when he was at VU as runs scored were up about three percent across his career, compared to the balance of time from the period we've covered.
Buschmann was versatile, well-liked, pitched for the first two NCAA tournament teams at VU in a quarter-century, finished among the top 10 in career innings with a good ERA, had a hand in a perfect game, pitched well in two NCAA tournament starts and was a consistent contributor for four years. He's got one of the lower peak values of any athlete on the list, but the body of work makes him deserving of a spot on the list.
