Mizzou Baseball Quotes & Notes: Pratte on time

■ Balls, strikes -- and clocks? (Springfield News-Leader)

Nearly 20 years later, Evan Pratte remembers stepping into the batter's box with one eye on the pitcher and the other on a ticking clock.

"I thought we were playing a basketball game at some points, it was moving so fast," Pratte, a former Missouri State infielder, said of the clock used in Missouri Valley Conference games in 1990 and '91.

Players adapted, Pratte said, under the threat of automatic balls or strikes being called for violations.

The plan was scrapped the following year, but college baseball could be on the clock again -- in all of NCAA Division I --as soon as next season.
. . .
"It'll speed up the game a little bit, for some teams more than others," Pratte said. "But I think teams will adjust."