Grove in an Early Groove in the Shark Tank

The Grove File
Position	Right-Handed Pitcher
Hometown	Oklahoma City
High School	Moore
Major	Undecided
2016 Stats	3-1, 3.77 ERA, 26 K, 28.2 IP

Grove on the Bump
It wasn't until late in the season that Grove emerged as a frontline pitched on the OU staff with three wins all coming in the final month. Now playing summer ball for the Martha's Vineyard Sharks, the success has continued as he fanned 11 in his first win in the Futures League on June 12.

Dylan Grove pitched a seven-inning, complete-game victory in an elimination game at the Big 12 Championship in late May as the Sooners knocked off the regular season champions and eventual College World Series participant Texas Tech Red Raiders, 17-4. After little time off, he was back on the mound for the start of summer ball with the Martha's Vineyard Sharks of the Futures Collegiate Baseball League in New England.

In his first appearance, Grove tossed four innings of relief with seven strikeouts. He would wait an entire week before he pitched in a game as he got the nod to make his first start for the Sharks.

Martha's Vineyard is an island south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts that sits 20.5 miles across and covers a little more than 87 square miles. The Sharks play their home games at the Vineyard Baseball Park; known simply as the "Shark Tank". To get around to the other nine league venues, the team travels by ferry to the main land for its road games. That coupled with a variety of other factors that come with island life and made for a far different routine than what Grove is accustomed to during the collegiate spring season.

"I'll wake up and try not to sleep in so as not to waste any time, but it happens sometimes," began Grove. "Everybody will make breakfast. I've got six roommates; all teammates. Then we'll go to the beach for three or four hours to hang out and then head up to the field. It doesn't get too crazy. Just go to the beach and go to the field to play."

As a freshman at OU this past spring, Grove made seven relief appearances and four starts. He posted a 3-1 record, 3.77 earned run average and 26 strikeouts in 28.2 innings. Grove's needed to work through a crowded bullpen to earn innings before getting the opportunity to start games; all of which came in the final month of the season.

"All my starts during the season were pretty late and I didn't get as many innings as the coaches and I would've liked and we talked about that. This is my opportunity to get back into that starter feel and routine so that it's not an issue come this fall and in the spring I'll just be back into that role and it'll be what I'm ready for."

Grove's seven-inning, complete game effort pitched the Sooners past No. 5 Texas Tech at the Big 12 Championship at the Bricktown Ballpark in OKC.

In his first start, Grove pitched the Sooners to their first win over in-state rival Oral Roberts since 2013. He followed with a series-clinching win over Oklahoma State in his first Big 12 start and finished the year with the win over No. 5 Texas Tech.

His first start for Martha's Vineyard came on June 12 on the road at the Nashua Silver Knights in New Hampshire. The Sharks won, 4-1, as Grove looked like the same pitcher that walked off the mound two weeks earlier in a pressure-packed, elimination game. He punched out 11 and allowed just one run on six hits and a walk in seven innings of work.

"My fastball was working both sides of the plate," Grove said of his start vs. Nashua. "I was able to throw in and out very consistently. I was able to throw my slider for a strike and out of the zone when I needed to in two-strike counts. My splitter was probably my best pitch that day. I think I threw it six times and had six swing-and-miss strikeouts on it."

For Grove, an Oklahoma kid who wasn't a part of OU's travel squad to Texas Tech for the first Big 12 series of the year in late March, his freshman season was one filled with learning. Not just about baseball, but of himself as well.

"I just found that it's like everybody says when you're growing up around baseball; you never know as much about baseball as you think and anytime you think you're at a certain point baseball has its own way of policing itself and it will check you for you," reflected Grove. "It shows you that you're not exactly where you think you are. That's what it did. It showed me that I wasn't exactly where I thought I was, but then time and work came into play and I ended up getting a starting spot later down the road.

"Coach Hughes and I talked about this," Grove said of playing on Martha's Vineyard. "It's a great opportunity to get out of my comfort zone and kind of be away from everything that I'm used to. I feel like the summer is going to be a really good opportunity for me."

Having been to the east coast just once, a family visit to Virginia, as a child, Grove has certainly stepped out of his comfort zone for the summer. Asked to identify one of the major benefits to immediately impact his summer the answer was clear.

"I love seafood. The lobster here is unreal."