By: Chad Amidon – February 25, 2012
Blustery winds and cool temperatures rolled through the Carolina’s the past couple days, but it was not enough to stop baseball from moving on schedule.
Alice Mill Park hosted five teams from the Upstate, Easley, JL Mann, Liberty, Riverside and Pickens. The only team not scheduled to play today was Mann. The format was simple, seven innings of baseball with no time limits.
Game One: Riverside vs Liberty
Toeing the rubber for Riverside was junior left-hander Tyler Polk. Liberty would counter with a 6-4 right-hander Caleb Roberts. After a scoreless first frame from both sides, Riverside scratched across an unearned run in the top of the second thanks to a lead-off error and a big two-out single from Polk, back up the box. Liberty stranded a one out single from Roberts in their half of the second and the onslaught ensued.
In the top of the third Roberts seemed to lose the command that he had in the first two frames by starting the inning with a lead-off walk to Drew Joiner. After an out Tanner Easterday, Austin Luttrell and Morgan Howard singled which was followed by a costly two-run error. And for the second time of the inning Joiner was back at the dish with one on and two outs. This time he capped off the third inning with a two run towering shot over the leftfield fence and running the total runs of the inning to eight and making it a 9-0 score after three innings.
Liberty had runner on in each inning but could not push across anything versus Polk.
Riverside put an exclamation point on to the game when they batted around the order once again in the top of the fifth inning, knocking in five insurance runs in the inning to make it a 14-0 lead. Gray Thomas started the hit parade with a leadoff double and the Warriors tallied six hits in the inning. Polk came to back the mound in the bottom of the fifth and made quick work of the Red Devil team registering two strikeouts in the inning to complete the game.
Game Two: Easley vs Pickens
Stephen McKnight took the mound for the Green Wave opposite him was Daulten Stewart for the Blue Flames. This game proved to be a pitcher’s duel as both teams were held hitless through two full frames. Easley pushed across the first run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning when Brandon Hood reached base on a fielder’s choice and with one out in the inning, Austin Northcutt and Nolan Clark hit back to back singles to score Hood. The Blue Flames had no answer in the top half of the fifth. Easley pushed across an insurance run in the bottom half of the fifth inning when Will Hartsell led off the inning with a single and thanks to a costly two out error scored on a Hood shot back up the middle.
Pickens mounted a rally in their half of the sixth inning with Brice Maready taking over on the bump for McKnight. Beau Strickland started the inning with a single, Trey Alexander follwed with a base-on-balls, but Maready had seen enough and sat down the next three Pickens batters in order and in style with three backward k’s.
Liberty sent Strickland to the mound to try and keep the game within striking distance and he did not disappoint as he retired the Green Wave in order and with ease, but Maready was too much for the Flames as he would raise his two inning strikeout total to five with two more punch-outs in the seventh inning and ending the game in style with a K. The Easley Green Wave 2, Pickens Blue Flames 0.
-Prosepct Info: Riverside Warriors-
Drew Joiner- 2012, OF, Citadel: Drew hit at the top of the order for the Warriors and was two for three with a bomb and 3 RBI’s. He showed that he can handle the stick and looks to be athletic. There was only one ball hit his direction, so I’m not sure how much ground he can cover in the outfield, but looks to be a solid player.
Tanner Easterday-2012, 3B, Uncommitted: Tanner showed some bat speed at the dish, nearly missed a homerun to leftfield that hit off the base of the wall. I would like to a better two strike approach, he hits third for the Warriors and maybe they don’t like him to cut his hack down with two strikes, but he is not a power guy and at the next level it will be very important for him to consistently put the ball in play. I could see him as a second baseman at the next level, not to say he cannot play third, but the foot work on slow rollers needs to be cleaned up if that is going to happen. I did only see one slow roller and he did make the play but it was not as smooth as I would like to see.
Austin Luttrell-2012, C, Uncommitted: This kid plays with a confidence and looseness that I like to see. He is a great high school backstop and takes command over his pitchers, which is a leadership role that you like to see from catchers. I had him at a 2.2 sec game time pop, which cut down the attempted base stealer. At the dish he has some work to do. He commits to early and it causes him to cast his hands away from his body and in turn makes him weak. Let the ball travel kid, hit in a strong position and stop casting your hands away from your body and stop try and pull the outside pitch. Short to it and long through it, not the other way around. Anyone looking to add a catcher/leader needs to check this kid out.
Morgan Howard- 2013, OF, Uncommitted: At the dish Morgan had a lot of the same problems as Luttrell, but this kid made an adjustment after his first at-bat. I would like to say that the entire team had this problem, but after two innings the coaching staff and the boys made adjustments which was great to see. I am going on record; I think Morgan can have a solid college career. I like seeing kids that can make adjustments from one AB to the next. He shortened his swing and started going with the pitches and was hitting out of a strong position after his first AB. If he has this approach during the season, he will be a tough out.
Tyler Polk- 2013, LHP, Uncommitted: Polk has a tight top heavy delivery and it makes it hard for anything to go wrong, which he showed on this day with no walks and only one HBP (which I will touch on here in a minute) in five innings of work. The HBP came on a lefty versus lefty matchup. Polk decided that he wanted to drop down and throw a fastball and it connected on Whitworth’s knee. This decision did not make much sense to me, when a pitcher drops down they are trying to accomplish one of two things; a different look or create more movement, so a left-hander dropping down versus a left-handed hitter does not make sense to me. The more movement he is trying to gain is going to end up in the hitter’s knee, like it did today. You have enough arm side already, just throw it from where you have been all day and let it work. Polk looked to be 76-78 MPH and will always give his team a chance to win with the way he pound the zone. I would like to see him accelerate through his breaking ball instead of decelerating. This decelerating causes a slow looping breaking ball. He also slowed his delivery down early in counts when he was trying to flick a breaking ball in for strikes. Good teams will pick up on this change in tempo and they will know what to do with a hanging breaking ball. Polk is a solid LHP and I like watching him work on the mound. He also fields the position very well.
Notables: Connor Gibson, Gray Thomas
-Prospect Info: Liberty-
Caleb Roberts- 2014, RHP, Uncommitted: Roberts looks the part with a 6-4 frame and looks to be 210lbs or so. His actions on the diamond look a lot like a deer in headlights. This kid has a world potential if he puts the time into it. He doesn’t look comfortable out there, but it didn’t affect him through the first two innings as he was pounding the zone with what looked to be a fastball at 81-82 MPH and a slider, with some improvement will be an out pitch for him. He threw a few cut fastballs (by accident) but it was filthy and got some swings and misses from right-handed hitters in the middle of the left-handed batter’s box. Someone needs to take this kid under their wing and teach him. Once he understands that he is pretty good, he will blossom into a pitcher.
Notables: Caleb Whitworth
-Prospect Info: Easley Greenwave-
Stephen McKnight- 2012, LHP/OF, Uncommitted: Let me start off on saying this will take a minute. When I look at Stephen I think this kid is going to be a great player for someone at some point. Right now he could play in someone’s outfield as a freshman in college. He has good hands at the dish and has some pop in his stroke; there is no question about that. I want to talk about him on the mound. Every time I go to the park and I know McKnight is on the mound I get excited because I think this is the day that it’s all going to click and he will be 85-87 MPH with a nasty hook, but it still has not happened. But, it will. Today the only trouble that was caused, he caused himself. He only gave up one hit in five innings of work, but had six base-on-balls and one HBP. This is not acceptable. Most of his misses where up and arm side in the zone. Now I don’t want to get into coaching, but I’m going to in a nutshell. A 6-3 frame with lanky limbs is what we are working with. He has a long arm action with a lot of pitchers tilt. McKnight has all this action going on while still trying to consistently get his throwing arm up into a good position and it just does not matchup on a consistent basis (which later on may cause a shoulder problem with the consistent dragging of the throwing arm) and thus we get high and tight misses. If Stephen stopped hooking his lead leg in and ride out his stride length longer this would produce more time for his throwing arm elbow to reach shoulder height and produce more consistent results. It’s either that or take some of the shoulder tilt out and shorten the arm path by keeping the throwing arm elbow flexed, shortening the arm stroke. This shorter arm action is much easier to repeat. McKnight is going to be a force as a dual player for the right program I have no doubts about that. I just want him to figure it out now. As for the right now, Mcknight was 81-83 MPH topping out at 84 MPH with his breaking ball at 69-71 MPH and a slider at 73 MPH.
Tucker Burgess- 2013, RHP/1B, Clemson: Enough has been said about him in the past. He didn’t throw today and I heard he is about three weeks away as he is still working his pens in at 75 percent. He is an athlete and made a web gem in the second inning, when he leaped into the air at full stretch to take a hit away from the Blue Flames. Special player enough said.
Will Hartsell- 2013, SS, Uncommitted: This kids actions are good not great, but he does them with confidence and ease. He is a threat with the stick at the top of the Green Wave order as he showed today with some balls that came off the bat with some life. I can see Hartsell as a four-year starter in college at the right program. Will seems to be a hard-nosed player. I like him.
Brice Maready – 2013, RHP, Uncommitted: Started behind the dish and was a 2.18-2.2 pop. I was more impressed with this young man on the mound. He is noting overpowering as he sat 79-82, but his breaking ball was freezing the Blue Flames as it darted into the zone at 68-71. He should mound presence today which was a welcomed site, there were times I even seen him smiling. After a slightly rough start with the first two batters he went on to strike-out 5 of the next 7. He has a smaller frame, so I’m not sure if there is a velo jump in there or not but if there is, this kid will be on the radar.
Jordan Pankake -2014, 3B, Uncommitted Jordan is a powerful looking kid. All the makings of a very good player are there. He needs to relax at the dish and stop reaching and trying to get around outside pitches (a theme of the day), outside pitches can be pulled, but not the way these players are trying to accomplish it. So, let the ball travel at hit with that powerful frame that you have instead of just waving the bat with your arms on the outer half of the dish. Will be a very solid player in the coming years
Brandon Hood- 2014, DH, Uncommitted: Brandon has a nice compact swing from the left side and is going to be a tough out in the middle of the Easley order. He looks athletic, so his playing time in the field is coming but for now he fits nicely in the middle of the order.
-Prospect Info: Pickens Blue Flames-
Beau Stickland- 2013, C/RHP,Uncommitted: Someone grab this kid now! If he decides, that he wants to pitch this kid will be special. He has all the makings of being a solid college player as a catcher with a 2.09 sec pop and a chance at the dish. This kid is going to make a college very happy on the mound. He was only 84-86 MPH tonight, but it was a fastball that talks to you on the way to the plate. It reminded me a lot of Jordan Lyles of Hartsville before he made his big jump. He is a solid bodied kid at 6-1 and around the 200 lbs mark I am guessing. He has a short quick arm action that coincides with a fast tempo, late hand break and a long stride. This kids stock is going to sky-rocket shortly! At the dish when he learns to slow down his load and get the front foot heel clicked in earlier he will take off. For the time being, everything is too herky-jerky and it throws his timing off. Strickland will be a special player.
Dillan Lockaby- 2016, SS, Uncommitted: This kid is an eighth grader that starts at shortstop for the Flames. He showed good baseball instincts tonight giving ground on a laser off the bat of Burgess and still turning the double play. I love to watch young kids like this and see them evolve over the years. Be on the lookout for Lockaby in about three years. If he continues to grow he is going to be a good one. Good luck young man, you don’t look a bit out of place out there.
Notables: Dallas Moses (2015, lead-off hitter, 2B)