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