Boston Celtics

Pat Connaughton, a former MLB pitching prospect, threw a wildly inaccurate first pitch before the Brewers game

"It's been a little while," said the Arlington native.

Pat Connaughton and Giannis Antetokounmpo look up to the scoreboard during a playoff game last month against the Detroit Pistons. Aaron Gash / AP

By Nik DeCosta-Klipa

2 minutes to read

Not since Mark Wahlberg has a Massachusetts native been so dangerously wild before the start of an MLB game.

Still, we should probably expect better from Milwaukee Bucks guard Pat Connaughton.

The Arlington-bred NBA player was a two-sport athlete during his career at Notre Dame. In addition to captaining the Fighting Irish basketball team, Connaughton was a star pitcher for the college’s baseball team, with a fastball clocked as high as 98 mph. He was even drafted in the fourth round of the 2014 MLB Draft by the Baltimore Orioles.

However, before the Milwaukee Brewers game Wednesday — an off-day in the Bucks-Celtics second-round playoff series — Connaughton looked more like a basketball player on the mound.

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“It’s been a little while,” Connaughton said of his wild ceremonial first pitch, which he fired high and outside into the Miller Park backstop, over the head of his catcher and narrowly missing a few bystanders behind the plate.

“I would have brushed back a few right-handed batters,” he joked in an interview with Fox Sports.

Connaughton estimated the pitch was somewhere around 75 to 80 mph, noting that he had “strict instructions” from Bucks general manager to tone it down in the midst of the team’s playoff run. A Brewers coach did compliment Connaughton’s “arm strength” in a video tweeted by the Bucks.

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“The accuracy wasn’t there,” he replied.

With the series tied 1-1, Connaughton is headed back to his home state for Games 3 and 4 this weekend in Boston. The 26-year-old told Fox Sports that he expects “quite a few” family and friends to be in attendance at TD Garden. A Celtics fan growing up, Connaughton said his childhood favorite is “just another team in front of us.” Coming off the bench, the 6-foot-4 guard has averaged 5 points and 8 rebounds in the first two games of the series.

“Hopefully, we’ll find out who my real friends are — whether they’re rooting for me and the Bucks or the Celtics,” Connaughton said. “It’ll be fun though. It will be a great atmosphere, and I think our team will really respond well to it.”