Round Up-March

March Round-Up

By: Austin Alexander

Fool’s Day, 2006

A dry March resulted in some quality baseball played around the Palmetto State. Diamond Prospects breaks down some of the highlights.

Diamond Prospects Statistics:

Teams covered-40

Games seen-25

Fields-14

Rainouts-0

Coaches without rosters-14

Players on a cell phone behind the dugout during the game-1

Miles traveled-2,471

Possums hit-1

Quickest game: Didn’t see one.

Best game: North Augusta 13 West Carteret (NC) 11

Best comeback: Tough call…GOLD Medal-Trailing 11-1 headed to the bottom of the sixth, North Augusta scored six runs in the sixth and six more in the seventh, winning 13-11 on a walk-off bomb. SILVER Medal-Manning’s 11-run fourth, after trailing 9-0, and went on to win 12-10.

Weirdest play: Dillon defeated Myrtle Beach when a runner who was already out got hung up in a run-down allowing another runner, who had started at second base,  to score the winning run.

Best home to first time: Andrew Greene (Furman) 3.84 on a push bunt

Best home to first time (turn): Michael Ross Collins (West Florence)

Best pop time: Drew Wingo (Mauldin HS) 1.91

Longest homerun: Brett Thomas (AC Flora)

Best defensive play: James Harlan (Georgetown) Diving grab headed back and towards left-center field gap at the IP Classic, the height on his lounge at the ball won this category for him. 

Best pitcher’s duel: Michael Ghizzoni (Wren HS) versus Nick Osterman (Stratford HS), Wren 2-1 in 8 innings at the IP Classic.

Most dominant pitching performance: Michael Ghizzoni (Wren versus Stratford in the IP Classic)

Hardest fastball: Jason Place 91 mph

Best baseball name: (tie) Hamp Parler (White Knoll HS) and Kodiak Quick (Kansas University)

Cleanest round of pre-game: Dutch Fork HS

Top Fungo Guy: Mike Pulaski-Dutch Fork HS

Best Dressed Evaluator: Ron Smith (Furman University)

Best Catcher’s Pop-up: Frankie Ward (Manning HS), no competition in this category!

Best Argument with an Umpire: Chris Carter (Byrnes HS), no competition in this category either!

Best line from a mom in the bleachers: “That call was bullcrap Blue.”

Best Playing Surface: Mauldin High HS, Manning HS

Best pre-game tunes: (tie) Richland Northeast HS and Myrtle Beach HS 

February’s Round-Up

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