<p>It's not unusual for a catcher to walk out to the mound when a team changes pitchers.</p><p>It is different, however, to see the player shed his catching gear so that he can take over as the new pitcher.</p><p>For Georgia Tech freshman Matt Wieters, there's nothing unusual about the transformation from catcher to pitcher.</p><p>"I've been doing that since Little League and through high school," Wieters said. "I didn't know if it'd be able to happen in college, but luckily it has."</p><p>Wieters has played several key roles for Tech (42-16), the top seed in the NCAA regional which begins Friday at Russ Chandler Stadium. South Carolina will play Michigan Friday at noon, followed by Tech's regional opener against Furman at 4 p.m.</p><p>As a designated hitter, catcher and closer, Wieters has had a busy freshman season. Wieters, from Goose Creek, S.C., has hit .368 with nine homers and 63 RBIs, ranking third on the team in each category. He has pitched in 24 games, posting a 3-2 record while leading the team with a 2.68 earned run average and six saves.</p><p>"That kid can do anything," said junior outfielder Steven Blackwood.</p><p>"I've never seen anything like it, a freshman coming in and dominating the game the way he does. The way he takes control and nothing phases him."</p><p>Added Blackwood: "He's everywhere."</p><p>Wieters is a big reason Tech is the No. 2 national seed and will retain its home-field advantage in the Super Regional next week if it wins the regional, which ends Sunday or Monday.</p><p>From fall practice through last week's Atlantic Coast Conference tournament, when he earned two wins as Tech won the championship, Wieters has impressed his teammates and coaches with his play and his unflappable demeanor.</p><p>"It's very rare you get a player like that," Blackwood said. "You see guys who are talented come in the program, but you don't see guys who have it mentally and physically. He's a kid who works very hard and people are always happy to see him succeed."</p><p>Baseball is in Wieters' blood.</p><p>His father, Richard, was a pitcher who was a fifth-round draft pick of the Atlanta Braves in 1977. Richard Wieters played five years in the minor leagues with the Braves and Chicago White Sox.</p><p>Wieter's uncle _ his mother Pamela's brother, Mike Shields _ also played in the Braves' organization. When the two were teammates, Shields introduced Richard Wieters to Pamela.</p><p>Wieters said his father, now an accountant, helped mold his baseball skills.</p><p>"Whenever he was off work we would go to the baseball field or just throw in the back yard," he said. "We spent a lot of time with baseball together growing up."</p><p>Now his father spends a lot of time on the highways between Goose Creek, a suburb of Charleston, S.C., and Atlanta.</p><p>"It's 312 miles," said Richard Wieters. "I've made that drive quite a few times."</p><p>Richard said he didn't expect to see his son fill so many roles this soon in his college career.</p><p>"I've kind of been surprised at all the different things he's been doing," Richard said. "He made a lot of great strides physically in the fall with their weight program. He just goes out there and does what they ask him to do."</p><p>Wieters, now 6-foot-5 and 224 pounds, was better known as a catcher than a pitcher through most of his career at Stratford High School. He says he didn't get the chance to pitch until his junior year, when another catcher transferred to his school.</p><p>"We pretty much had recruited him to do more catching," said Tech coach Danny Hall. "From the time we recruited him in the fall before his senior season until the end of last summer his pitching really improved. That was the one area that really took off. Then we thought we can really utilize him on the mound."</p><p>The next realization was that Wieters could catch and pitch in the same game.</p><p>"It's really not that hard," he said. "Once you're in the game it gets your adrenaline going. Stepping to the mound gets you pumped up even more.</p><p>"It doesn't really phase me that much, going from behind the plate to the mound."</p><p>In fact, nothing seems to phase Wieters.</p><p>Said Hall: "He's our closer, no question about that. One of the reasons we have him where he's at is he doesn't let things bother him."</p>
