Redshirt freshman Kros Sivley emerges as Southern Miss’ go-to reliever
The stopper from Sumrall was having a hard time making the most of his opportunities.
Kros Sivley was struggling to earn extended reps in fall scrimmages five months ago, but now he’s Southern Miss’ go-to stopper out of the bullpen with 10 more innings thrown than the next reliever as a second-year freshman.
There was always talent locked away in the left-hander’s arm, he just hadn’t found the key to unlocking it. That changed when Sivley sat down with pitching coach Christian Ostrander during the winter break.
“I think we were just kind of spinning our wheels a little bit and then, honestly, this past fall I just kind of had to sit down with him at the end-of-year exit meetings,” Ostrander told the Sun Herald. “I just told him, real honest, ‘You’re going to have to buy in and you’re going to have to find out what your identity is.’”
The two began to simplify Sivley’s approach. He pitches out of the stretch more often than before and stopped focusing on arm angles and spin rates.
As a result, Sivley found his identity and unlocked the talent in his arm by consistently pounding the strike zone with more confidence.
“Just over Christmas break, I was getting real confident,” Sivley said. “Especially with my fastball, just throwing it in there wherever I wanted.”
Using deception to overcome size
At 5-foot-11, Sivley doesn’t have the physical mound presence that is in such great demand across the sport. He stands over three inches shorter than the average Major League Baseball pitcher and dwarfs under toolsy bullpen-mate Justin Storm, who controls the mound with his 6-foot-7 frame.
Sivley dominates in his own way, with deception. With a faster-than-radar fastball that only tops out around 90 miles per hour, but is hidden away until the last moment by a quirky delivery.
“He’s unique, he’s got a different release height,” Ostrander said. “His arm action, his arm slot is different. He hides the ball well, there’s a lot of deception in there... There’s enough fastball, but it really jumps on the hitters. They don’t see it real well.
“It’s not just one thing with him, I think it’s several things together. And the difference is the arm slot, he hides the ball well. It’s hard to find out of his hand.”
Batters don’t register the fastball until it’s too late, creating an effect that seems to give Sivley more velocity than he really has and, as a byproduct, intensifies the effectiveness of his slider.
It’s working. Sivley has 29 strikeouts in 22.2 innings and fanned eight batters over four innings in his collegiate debut against Liberty in February.
Where control was once a weakness, Sivley now delivers with impeccable command. He’s one of just two pitchers in Division I with at least 29 strikeouts and only a single walk allowed and leads the USM bullpen with a 2.78 ERA.
“What a great story, a young man that redshirted last year and really didn’t do a whole lot this past fall,” Southern Miss head coach Scott Berry said. “But came back from Christmas and, you know, something clicked and he’s really just taken off since then. He’s one of those guys, if his pitch counts are rested enough for us to use, he’s certainly the first thought in your mind to go to and help win a game.”
Quickly earning a stopper role in a retooling bullpen
Sivley has quickly become an integral part of a bullpen that was gutted by the draft and transfer portal last summer. The staff is not gun-shy about pushing Sivley’s limits.
He was called on in last Friday’s win over Georgia Southern and threw the last 3.2 innings after a rain delay. Sivley allowed three runs, but earned the save and kept the remaining members of the bullpen fully rested before a grueling double-header the next day.
Even still, according to Sivley, Ostrander was prepared to throw him again if the nightcap of Saturday’s 10-8 loss went into extra innings.
“If you need me, I want to pitch,” Sivley said. “(Ostrander) trusts me with it... I feel good about it, real confident about it. Just ready to get out there every single game and every single time coach Oz gives me a chance. I feel confident enough I can stop the other team and not let them score too many runs.”
Sivley has been called upon to cover multiple innings in seven of his 10 appearances. In those games, he has a head-turning 1.47 ERA.
Ostrander said Sivley put in the work necessary to find his identity on the mound and it came at a crucial time. While the Golden Eagles aren’t the top-three in the country pitching team they were a year ago, USM still has the third-best team ERA in the Sun Belt, even if it is an inflated 5.08 mark.
Sivley’s mystifyingly low WHIP of 0.71 is also a major factor in the team’s league-best opponent batting average of .227.
Ostrander compares Sivley directly to Ryan Och, who graced the mound at six-foot-even for USM from 2019-2021 and now pitches in the San Diego Padres’ organization.
“Ryan’s separator was uniqueness and I think Sivley is a lot like that,” Ostrander said. “It’s a different look that a hitter has never seen before... (Sivley’s) uniqueness is a huge, huge thing and I love that. He’s definitely funky.”
It didn’t click for Och until his third year on campus, but when it did, he became nearly untouchable. Sivley has figured it out much quicker and is using his illusory approach to help USM gain an edge late in games.
This story was originally published March 29, 2023 at 8:00 AM.
