TCU’s Feltman leads nation in saves and set school record but not pleased

TCU closer Durbin Feltman is the nation’s save leader and school record-holder for saves in a season with 17.

But he’s not all that thrilled.

“Not the year I wanted,” he said.

Why not? Three blown saves.

“I’m not satisfied with it,” he said Friday after batting practice at the College World Series. “I love being at the top save-wise, but I really just want to execute more quality pitches. I feel like that’s been kind of down this year.”

Feltman converted his first 18 save chances at TCU, nine as a freshman and his first nine chances this season before being unable to close an April 16 game at West Virginia. That was followed by a rocky appearance against Baylor six days later in which he gave up three runs in a non-save situation and was pulled. On May 5, he gave up the tying run in the ninth against Texas. A week later, he gave up a walk-off three-run home run at Oklahoma.

Since then, he’s converted five chances, including one in the Big 12 tournament and two in the NCAA tournament.

“You just have to get back out there,” he said. “I kept itching to pitch, especially right after that (West Virginia) game. I wanted to get back out there the next Tuesday and pitch.”

Feltman, a sophomore from Conroe, stands second on TCU’s career saves list with 26. Riley Ferrell saved 32 from 2013 to 2015.

“The more you get put out there, it’s going to happen sooner or later,” Feltman said of the blown save possibility. “I think it’s better that I did that early in the season, so once we get here, if it’s going to happen, I can learn from that, learn how to deal with that. I’m glad it happened early in the season — I wish it had never happened at all, obviously. But I think it’s a good experience. I learned from that, learned how to come back, flush that, get rid of that.”

This story was originally published June 16, 2017 at 7:37 PM with the headline "TCU’s Feltman leads nation in saves and set school record but not pleased."