Myrtle Beach Triple Crown Tournament
The Triple Crown tournament down in Myrtle Beach South Carolina was a blast! We have a bunch of stories, but I want to highlight our pitchers of course.
We played some of the best competition around! After doing some scouting before our first game, it was clear that teams were SCORING RUNS! 20-1, 12-0, 19-0! Young Guns pitchers for both our Navy and Carolina teams were able to neutralize those offenses. Here’s why:
100% of the teams we faced were cheating first pitch fastball! Our strategy was to go with offspeed early and attack with velocity INSIDE late. Most hitters were also cheating outside corner with their toes on the white line of the batter’s box! I give the boys a lot of credit. They pitched at a very high level. I say that because this strategy increases the risk of walks, unless you have CONTROL of ALL of your pitches. Being able to locate curveballs behind in the count is not easy. Twice we turned a 3-1 count into strikeouts with curveballs! I was very impressed with their ability to execute pitches. If we threw fastballs at the wrong time it was CRUSHED. So we just kept throwing offspeed!
Check out these pitching lines:
Charlie Hernandez:
4IP - 8K’s. Against Canes Simpson. If you don’t know how good they are look them up. They had 17 players on the roster and fly in new players each day. Charlie dominated them! They offered him a spot after the game. Charlie’s work ethic these passed few months has been 2nd to none. His fastball jumped to the high 70s down in Myrtle! But we can’t forget his key to success was that nasty curveball early in the count. Had to be 50% offspeed pitches to neutralize that fastball hitting Canes offense.
Carter Maier:
6IP, CG, 67 pitches, 67% strikes, had a 4 pitch innings. Only 1 strikeout. He let his defense make plays. You don’t have to strike everyone out to be successful!
Vincent Nuzzo:
4.2 IP, 68 pitches, He threw 47 strikes. That’s a 70% strike average! 3H and 2BB against the same Canes team. He had their 3hole SS (who of course my team talked about the whole game, how good he was supposed to be…) in a 3-1 count. He threw 2 curveballs in a row for a strikeout. Very impressive Vincent!
Donny Ferguson:
6IP, 2H which were back to back, he then retired the next 3. 4Ks. Impressive outing from Donny. His passion and fire is electric for any defense to feed off and turn into positive offensive energy! Especially after his THREE 3️⃣ PITCH INNING
Quentin Ricketts:
2IP, 6 strikeouts. Yes, he struck out every hitter for EVERY OUT. His stuff is dominant. Heavy fastball in the low 70s and a NASTY back door slider. He struggled early on throwing 7 balls in a row. I called time and told him to change his focal point for his breaking ball and fastball (higher target). I also told I could feel his negativity. So I gave him some of my positive energy bubble. He then DOMINATED the opponent’s hitters.
Caden Fayette:
5IP, 8k’s and in CLUTCH spots! I put Caden in with the bases loaded against our SJYG Carolina team’s best hitter…and got the strikeout on that nasty sweeper he has. His velocity was way up. Had to be low to mid 70s. Opponents hit just .143 off him down here!
Brody Helduser:
6IP, 8K’s, 3H. Brody had too many walks which we are working on, but for the most part the opposition did not hit him. My Navy team actually faced him. I trained him for years so I put together a strategy. “Guys he doesn’t like to throw inside so get on the dish and cheat away. Pick up the 2-seam spin early, it will sink out of the zone.” That strategy didn’t work too well as he allowed 1H and struck out 5. His pitches have way too much movement for 13-14u hitters. He can get high school guys out NOW.
Aidan Wong:
2IP 2K 1H. 20 pitches, 15 strikes. 75% strikes for the highest % of the week! Aidan shut the door in dominant fashion against WT Rage. It was a high level game. Back and forth, a battle of 90 feet. We won 3-2. Clearly his curveball and well located
72-75mph fastball were too much for them. Also played a phenomenal short stop all week.
Micah Williams:
3IP, 3Ks, 3H, 1BB. Micah played a key role for us. When things went wrong, we went to him and he delivered with HEAVY STRIKES. You can’t teach clutch. He’s clearly a natural competitor. Curious what his velocity was. We’ve had him up to 75 in bullpens. He was upper 70s for sure down in Myrtle!
Nolan Lister:
3.1IP, 1H, 3Ks. Nolan is a power righty with good control of his slider and curve ball. Clear distinction between the two. Most kids say they have both but it is hard to differentiate between the two. He is able to throw his slider in any count and kept the Canes Simpson team off balance. He was getting squeezed and we gave him a short leash. If I were able to do it again, I would have went out and talked to him to come up with a pitch plan before taking him out. Before the game we were trying to figure out who to pitch and Nolan said that he wanted the ball really badly so clearly he was the best choice.
Altogether, Myrtle Beach was a blast and clearly the Young Guns have some dominant arms. I am excited to continue developing them into baseball players and respectful young men.