Around the Horn-April Round-Up

By: Austin Alexander-May 1, 2007

 

What a baseball month April turned out to be! We had playoff berths come down the wire, spring break tournaments galore and a post-season unlike any other in recent memory. Scoreboards around South Carolina have seen pitcher’s duel after pitcher’s duel give way to double-digit extra inning games and fantastic finishes. We’ve had great catches and heroic performances this month, one of the most exciting stretches of baseball in our state’s playoff history. Diamond Prospects had a front row seat at many of these events as we covered 95 different teams and took in 57 games during April. We’ll break down the past 30 days for our readers and pass out our monthly awards…

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Diamond Prospects Statistics

Teams covered-95

High School games seen-57

Fields-33

College games seen-3

Pro games seen-4

Rainouts-0

Miles traveled-4,209

DP.com Hits-1,020,934; A new record

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DP Accolades

Quickest game: Silver Bluff-Aynor, 1:22

Longest game: Lexington-Byrnes, 4:12

Best game: Lexington at Byrnes…twice

Best comeback: Trailing 4-2 with one out in the seventh inning versus Pickens’ Matt Ramey, AC Flora rallied to tie the game and won it in eight innings, 7-4.

Wildest play: Trailing 5-4 in the sixth inning at AC Flora in the first round of the 3A district playoffs, JL Mann freshman David Donald hit a three-run homer, his second of the game, to put his team on top by two. He rounded third base, threw his helmet and celebrated at home plate with his teammates. One problem, Flora catcher and the umpire determined that Donald missed the plate and he was ruled out, making the score 6-5 instead of 7-5. Flora scored a run in the bottom of the sixth and the rains came, leading to the suspension of the game. JL Mann had to return the next day, they were retired in the seventh, Flora scored, game over. Flora 7 Mann 6.

Best home to first time: Jarred Phillips (Pickens) 3.67 on a drag bunt

Best home to first time (turn): Jake Williams (Riverside) 4.28

Best pop time: John Nester (Riverside) and Jeffrey Campbell (Boiling Springs) 1.92

Longest homerun: Sean Sullivan (AC Flora)

Best defensive play: GOLD Medal–In the bottom of the eighth inning, Lexington’s Brandon Sills came to the plate with two outs, count two and two. The next pitch was smoked to centerfield on a line and everyone new it had the distance. White Knoll centerfielder Adam Matthews, found the fence, jumped up with great athleticism, reached over the fence up and out and snagged the ball for the third out. SILVER Medal– Playing second base, Conway second baseman Bobby Watford dove deep behind the bag, snagged a hard groundball and flipped to the shortstop to end the game and Summerville’s season.

Best pitcher’s duel: Marty Gantt (North Augusta) versus Hamilton Bennett (Fort Mill); Al Hentz (Lexington) versus Atlee Pearson (Byrnes); Justin Hopper (Lexington) versus Joseph Moorefield (Byrnes); Adam Westmorland (Brookland-Cayce) versus Greg Harrison (Hilton Head)

Most dominant pitching performance: Steven Neff (Lancaster) versus St. Ignatius (OH) in the Southeastern Classic

Hardest fastball: Logan Munson (AC Flora) and Ben Henry (Loris) 91 MPH

Best baseball name: Boomer Buff (Chapman)

Cleanest round of pre-game: Wando, Riverside

Top Fungo Guy: Chris Bates (Riverside)

Best Catcher’s Pop-up: Brian Hucks (Brookland-Cayce)

Best Argument with an Umpire: Brooks Shumake (Sumter)

Best line from a parent in the bleachers: “I can’t believe you called that, he couldn’t hit that ball with a golf club. That call was bull-hockey!”

Best Playing Surface: Myrtle Beach

Best pre-game tunes: Hartsville

Best in-game tunes: Wando

Best ballpark atmosphere: Hartsville

Best burger: AC Flora, Hilton Head and Hartsville

Best Dressed Evaluator: Lon Joyce (Los Angeles Dodgers)

The Gary Randall Attendance Award: Greg Schilz (Pittsburgh Pirates); the award could be issued to Gary Randall (MLB Bureau) each month so we’ve decided, instead, just to name the award after him!

Hospitality Award: Hilton Head at the Seahawk Invitational

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