Hermiston senior hurler Nychal Gritz already had one Columbia River Conference Pitcher of the Year award on his mantle before entering his senior season.

If one is good, two is great for Gritz, who captured his second consecutive Pitcher of the Year honor as he led the Bulldogs to a second-place finish in the CRC.

After winning the award in his junior season, Gritz said he felt he had a pretty good chance to repeat during his final high school campaign.

Last season, I was competing with a lot of older players for the award, he said. There were a ton of tough senior pitchers. The league was a little bit different this season, as a lot of the better pitchers were young guys. I thought theyd give the award to a senior if he did enough to deserve it.

Gritz has certainly deserved both of the awards in the last two seasons. Gritz has only one CRC loss to his name in two years. It was against the Pendleton Buckaroos two weeks ago in the final game of the CRC regular season. In that loss, Gritz threw a complete game, three-hitter with 11 strikeouts.

Id have liked to keep it a clean slate, although one loss in two years isnt too bad, he said.

After winning the award a season ago, Gritz said he knew the target would be on his back this season. He said he needed to change the way he pitched to give hitters a new look. He did that by adding a new pitch to his repertoire: a slider.

I had never thrown that pitch before, he said. I usually just focused on my fastball, change-up and curve, but guys who have hit against me for a few years were starting to catch on.

Gritz said he chose to add the slider because it followed a different trajectory than the rest of his pitches.

My curveball has more of an up-and-down motion, Gritz said. The slider breaks down also, but it has a sharp movement from side to side. It really screwed with hitters this season because they werent expecting me to throw a pitch like that. Its been a great out pitch for me.

Gritz attributed the slider to his high strikeout rate. He has totaled 88 of them in 66 innings of work this season. He isnt just a strikeout pitcher, however. For the season, Gritz has a 6-3 record with two saves in as many chances. He also sports an ERA of 2.65 and has walked 33 hitters. Despite the high strikeout tally, Gritz said he isnt focused on fanning every batter.

I really only try to strike out the top of an opposing lineup, he said. If I can strike out the other teams best hitters, I think can psych out the rest of the lineup. With the other batters, Im just trying to get outs and keep runners off second and third base.

Now that the awards have been settled, Gritz has a few more goals for himself and the Bulldogs for the postseason.

We want to make some noise, he said. Hopefully we can win a couple games and give ourselves a shot at a state title.

The Bulldogs take on Sherwood in the first round of the state playoffs, today.