Little Big Man: LSU pitcher Ma'Khail Hilliard cuts batters down to size

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There has to be a laundry list of people stunned that a 149-pound freshman phenom leads the Southeastern Conference in earned run average.

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Shawn Bates: "When Ma'Khail was 5 years old, I told his dad, 'He's going to be THE one,'" Bates said.

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"He was just born with an ability to spin the breaking ball," Raley said. "He’s got a fast arm, quick twitch muscles, and he creates some good angles. He's one of those little guys who the baseball gods blessed with a big arm."

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"If people do (underestimate Hilliard), that's their own fault," LSU sophomore starting pitcher Zack Hess said. "He plays a lot bigger than he looks. He's got big-time stuff."

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"I was long tossing with Ma'Khail one day," recalled LSU senior pitcher/first baseman Austin Bain, "and he was throwing sliders from like 200 feet away. I'm like, 'What is this?" I've never thrown with anybody before with such a natural cut."

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With the graduation of Hunter Newman and Hess moving from a reliever to starter, Mainieri had no returning closer. The first time Mainieri saw Hilliard's razor-sharp curve in fall practice, he mentally penciled him in as a closer. Yet pitching coach Alan Dunn told Mainieri to keep Hilliard in mind as a potential starter

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His father Keith remembered the day when little Ma'Khail, whom he's nicknamed "Mooch" after former Auburn and NBA guard Moochie Norris, was at Baton Rouge's Independence Park half-watching one of his brothers play a T-ball game.
A well-meaning bystander saw Ma'Khail flipping his plastic ball in the air and hitting it, so he decided to give him a hand.
"Hey, little man, let me throw you the ball," said the good Samaritan, grabbing the ball and taking a pitching spot just 10 feet from Ma'Khail.
Keith Hilliard didn't have time to warn the do-gooder he needed to back away even further.
"Mooch smacked the guy right in the face with a line drive," Keith said. "All I could do was apologize."[quote]

[quote]His baseball coaches through the years agree that his unruffled mound presence – an admiring McClure called Hilliard "a flatliner" because he played like he had no pulse – distinguished him from other pitchers along with his killer curveball.

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I'm watching (from directly behind Hilliard) from the outfield," LSU center fielder Zach Watson said, "and every pitch he throws looks like a curveball. Then, he throws his curveball and it's like a major league curve."

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Hilliard said he's eating 2,000 calories per meal but has yet to gain weight.

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"Ma'Khail does it the way he's supposed to do it," Mainieri said. "He has a lot of self-confidence, he's pretty unflappable and he raises his game when he gets in jams. But he doesn't show up his opponents. He has great class. "I love him."

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