LORMAN — Karlos Ferbos hasn’t spent much time on the mound until now.

The Alcorn State baseball player has been an outfielder throughout most of his time on the field.

But now, with his bat lacking and better outfielders in front of him, Ferbos has taken up pitching for the Braves.

“He’s got a good fastball, but we’re trying to teach him how to throw a curveball and a changeup,” coach Willie McGowan said. “We’re working on his control and how many pitches he can throw.”

McGowan said he gave Ferbos a chance to fight for an outfield spot his freshman year, but Ferbos wasn’t hitting as well as the other outfielders.

Ferbos didn’t play last year and hasn’t seen game action this season either, but McGowan said he hopes the sophomore can pick up pitching well enough to fill a hole for the Braves.

“It’s going to be a wait-and-see game. It depends on how he progresses,” McGowan said. “We need pitchers, but we don’t think he’s quite ready right now. If he were, we’d be putting him in there, but we’re trying to bring him in slowly.”

McGowan said it’s not unusual for players to change positions in the transition from high school to college, especially moving infielders to different positions in the infield or sending them to the outfield.

Turning a defensive player into a pitcher is a little bit different, but Natchez High coach Charlie Williams said he thinks it should be easy for his former player.

“With his work ethic I believe he could do a good job as a pitcher,” Williams said. “He’s probably going to be successful. If he’s getting good coaching, then he doesn’t have any bad habits to break. He’s learning to do it the right way the first time.”

Williams said the bad habits were part of the reason Ferbos struggled at the plate.

He said many young players have the problem of getting stuck in their ways and not wanting to adapt.

“He had some habits he didn’t want to change,” he said. “If he would have taken the time and worked on them, he probably would have been a better hitter. But when you’ve had a little success with something, you don’t want to change.”

McGowan said necessity players like second basemen, pitchers and shortstops can be forgiven for not having the strongest bats. But more interchangeable players, like those in the outfield, have to hit well to contribute, which is why Ferbos wasn’t working in that position.

But he said he tries to make sure his local players have every chance to contribute to the team.

“Sometimes you’ve got to do that because that’s the only way some of those kids are going to survive,” McGowan said. “Just because they played one position in high school doesn’t mean they can play that position at the Division-I level. But he’s right up under our nose, and we try to do everything possible to keep those kids and work with them when they’re from Natchez or Vicksburg or Lorman.”

And McGowan has been impressed with Ferbos’ willingness to learn.

He said he’s personally pulling for the new pitcher to succeed.

“You got to give the kid credit. He’s been here two years and hasn’t played, but he hasn’t given up,” McGowan said. “A lot of kids might have left by now. But he’s not giving up, he’s still out there. He’s not a quitter.”

The Braves are 20-14 and are ranked third in the Southwestern Conference Eastern Division with a 9-9 conference record.

McGowan said he’s impressed with how the team has fared this season when considering that a hiring freeze cost the Braves a year of recruiting.

“I really didn’t think that this team would do well, as well as they’ve been doing, because we missed a whole year of recruiting,” he said. “When you don’t have the money you can’t go out there and recruit players, so instead of having 45 ballplayers out there fighting and competing for positions, you end up with 30 or 25. Sometimes it takes two or three years to make it up.”

The Braves will take on Concordia College in Selma, Ala., for two games on Saturday before traveling to play Arkansas-Little Rock on Tuesday.

And Alcorn still has to make up three games against Alabama State.

“We beat Alabama State in three games here, but we got rained out over there in Montgomery,” McGowan said. “Their coach called me yesterday, and we’re trying to reschedule those three games. To make it easy on Alabama State and on Alcorn, we’re trying to look at a place halfway between the two schools, like in Meridian.”

The Braves will finish out the season with SWAC games against Mississippi Valley State and Grambling State, with a non-conference game against Southeastern Louisiana May 5.

Then it’s a waiting game to see if Alcorn makes the SWAC Tournament, to be at Southern in Baton Rouge May 20-24.

“We feel like we’ve got a good chance,” McGowan said. “All the schools are just about equal, it’s just a matter of what teams are playing well. Anybody can win.”