Vega put on quite the performance during Friday’s Game of the Week against the Delray Beach Lightning, pitching five scoreless innings. The Blazers’ starter faced 18 batters, striking out half of them to end his outing with nine strikeouts to only two walks, two hits allowed and a 0.00 ERA over a single-game, season-high five innings pitched for Vega. “I was just attacking, getting after all the hitters,” Vega said. “With me doing that, I was able to expand the zone, get more guys to chase. I think that was the biggest thing that helped me out was getting ahead (in the count) a lot. “When hitters are behind in the count. It puts them on the defensive, and they start doing too much.” Vega was able to take advantage of that by getting his slider down and out after expanding the zone on the Delray Beach hitters with his blistering fastball. The Butler Bulldog is very confident with those two pitches saying he gets a lot of swings and misses with his slider, calling it his favorite pitch narrowly ahead of his fastball. Starting his freshman year with Butler as a reliever, Vega really only needed to rely on his slider and fastball but towards the end of his first college season, Vega was inserted into the Bulldogs five-man starting rotation, meaning he needed to expand on his pitch types. Working on his change-up is the goal for the Hialeah, Florida native as he continues to churn quality innings for the Blazers this summer and after only three games, Vega is already starting to see results. The rising college sophomore got three batters out with his change-up this Friday at Little Fenway. “I can take my pitching level to the next level if I’m able to find that confidence like I have with the fastball and the slider,” Vega said about his change-up. Vega threw 40 total innings for Butler over the course of 14 games (two starts) in 2022 with a 4.50 ERA, 42 strikeouts to only nine walks, 35 hits and 20 earned runs. In South Florida, Vega’s already surpassed the number of starts he had with the Bulldogs as he looks to continue his future as a starting pitcher.