By: Austin Alexander – August 10-11, 2024 Northwest wins rain-marred weekend; Familiar names deliver, new ones emerge Once more our 17th Annual Palmetto Games was an amazing celebration of high school baseball across South Carolina! Right at 100 college coaches and professional scouts, along with our state’s top talent found their way to Sumter’s Riley Park, our third trip to this tradition rich area and historic ballpark, which had spent $1+ million in facility upgrades since our last visit! It has become a running theme with coaches and scouts that Mother Nature is not a Palmetto Games fan, as we have become accustomed to every sort of weather (except snow) and delay imaginable over the years – even a 3-inning long fire alarm sounding off. This year proved to be our greatest challenge yet. With a tropical storm dumping record numbers of rainfall over the Midlands, Pee Dee and Lowcountry in the five days leading up to the event, let’s just say we had our detractors that baseball would even be played. With a few breaks from the heavens and tons of hard work from Brock McDaniel’s staff, we miraculously started right on time each day. Dodging passing showers throughout both days, we plugged away continually to get in all that we could, but Saturday and Sunday’s finale’s succumbed to heavy showers, unfortunately ending Game 3 & 6 short of the finish line. As always, the format had a championship flavor pitting players against each other that hail from their geographic region, unless we had to even out positional needs. In the first five years this was a three-day affair, in 2013 we made the move to a two-day approach with the schedule calling for batting practice on the field, along with pre-game infield/outfield, and 60’s on Saturday, then followed by games. The Sunday slate featured each club scheduled to play one 9 inning game. Each team was able to participate in their post-game with awards being handed out for: Golden Arm, Silver Slugger, Gold Glove and Charlie Hustle Awards. For the past three years our champion was decided on the final swing of a Sunday contest, but not this time. Team Northwest left nothing to chance as they went 1-0-1 and had the best run differential at +8. They were piloted by Seneca skipper Adam Hosler, whose club scored 14 runs while surrendering only 6, their Saturday nightcap was halted in the 5th frame. It was their 3rd Palmetto Games championship and first since 2021. Congratulations to Team Northwest! Taking our top awards during the weekend were the following: Lexington 2025 Brandon Cromer (left, Most Outstanding Player) whose bat and impressive inning on the mound led him to this honor… Southside Christian 2026 LHP Carson Boleman (right) dealt in his one inning of work, striking out all four batters he faced; for his efforts he was awarded the Most Outstanding Pitcher Award, sponsored by Rawlings…In honor of our deceased friend and staff member Jeff Young, the 8th annual “JY” Heavy Hitter Award, sponsored by Anchor Bat, was issued to a guy who took the best round of BP and didn’t slow down in game action, James Island 2025 Jake Amman (3-5, 2B, 3 RBI, 2 BB), pictured below. Congratulations to each winner with a stable loaded full of legit guys who are really good at this baseball thing! Weekend Highlights: 25 players crossed the finish line with sub-7.0/60 times led by Oceanside Collegiate 2025 Andrew Palmer’s 6.52 (left)…Also, 32 pitchers touched 88 MPH or better, with 15 eclipsing 90+, a trio of arms paced the rest dialing it up to 92 MPH…Only one contest required extra innings, River Bluff freshman Banks Alexander had a two-run single in the bottom of the 10th to win the Sunday opener in walk-off fashion (video below)…Carson Boleman fanned four in his only inning of work, thought to be a Palmetto Games first…Not to be outdone, River Bluff 2026 Dalton Corley (left) punched out six during his two scoreless frames… The TO Award: Within a month following the 2015 Palmetto Games, DP MVP Tony Osterman was diagnosed with cancer. After an insane round of chemo treatments, radiation and numerous surgeries, guess who was back in the same role they have filled for 15 years…a cancer-free winner of life! In honor of our Warrior, we began an award that rewards one participant that shares TO’s zest for living and overall excellence as a person, this year’s recipient was Oceanside Collegiate senior Andrew Palmer who has led as example on/off the field and in the classroom which is what we look for in a TO Award Winner. Palmetto Games Champions (Last Title): Mideast-5 (2022), Northeast-3 (2017), Southwest-4 (2023), Northwest-2 (2021), Midwest-2 (2012), Southeast-0 ———————————————- The DP’s – Player/Scout Superlatives / DP Awards / 60’s-MPH-POP+ / Team Pictures / @diamondprospect / Standings / GameChanger Prospect Info: Pitchers / Prospect Info: Position Players ———————————————– Hometown Hospitality 3.0: After 12 years as the Palmetto Games’ home, the University of South Carolina had to pull the plug for Covid reasons about six weeks before the 2020 event. Yours truly was thrown into a tailspin…but then Al Harris with the City of Sumter came to the rescue! For two years Riley Park was an amazing host before we returned to where it all began – USC, this year we came back to the Pee Dee. A special thanks to Michael Geddings, USC Sumter top dog Tim Medlin (aka “1-9”), Bill Lyons, Brock McDaniel and a legion of staff members for being gracious hosts again while helping us foul off every curveball that came our way before and during the 17th Palmetto Games. Local Legend: Sumter’s own Bobby Richardson, for whom the field is named, stopped in to meet/greet folks on Saturday morning, while also delivering a brief, but spirit-filled message for those in attendance. It was the third time the 1960 World Series MVP and longtime New York Yankee had spoken at the Palmetto Games, thank you sir for your service to the game and the kingdom of Jesus Christ! Twitter, Instagram, etc: Shout out to Trey …
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