The Gamecocks of South Carolina took on the Yellow Jackets of Georgia Tech today at Founders Park in Columbia, SC on a beautiful Sunday fall afternoon. Fans from down the street, all the way to Atlanta, GA made there way out to Founders Park this afternoon to watch the fall scrimmage between South Carolina and Georgia Tech including dozens of professional scouts. The scrimmage went underway October 20th 2019 at 1:30pm and began with Carolina's expected #1 guy, Carmen Mlodzinski, on the mound.
Carmen Mlodzinski: FB (94-97mph) 2000-2200 | CH (82-84) 2100-2300 | SL (83-85) 1500-1700
Mlodzinski had to really work in the first inning but fanned 3 Jackets. Carmen was pounding the strike zone with his electric fastball with lots of life (Best Pitch). He also showed a quality change-up with really good action, life and deception. However, his power Slider/Slurve got away from him a bit and left a few fastballs up in the zone early that got barreled up hard allowing Tech to score 2 early with the help of a few past balls. Mlodzinski was absolutely dominate though when he got ahead early in counts.
A smooth 3-6-1 double play gets Carolina out of a jam in the top of the 3rd. Milone with a quality AB in the bottom of the 3rd scores Callil with a jam shot bloop to right cutting the Jackets lead to 2-1.
John Gilreath: FB (88-91) 2000-2100 | SL (81-83) 2200-2300 | CH (81-82) 1700-1800 | CU (83-84) 2100-2250
Gilreath got in a jam but was able to work out of it but not without having to use his entire arsenal to do so, heavily relied on his cutter early and often to get ahead. He pitched most the inning backwards but stayed with the approach and was able to stand runners on 2nd and 3rd, displaying really good mound presence with runners on. His maturity over the years has really jumped which I believe will show and help him out this spring quite a bit. Bryant Bowen came through with a laser off the bat at 100mph to right to tie it up in the bottom of the 4th. Carolina also took advantage of a couple past balls with runners on the corners scoring another and going first to third with some good baserunning. After 4 innings the Gamecocks lead the Yellow Jackets 3-2.
Brandon Jordan, a JuCo transfer from Cowley County CC, absolutely dominated on the mound in the 5th & 6th. Not necessarily a big guy however but listed at 6ft 2in 187lb. Presented great mound presence and a really good feel for all his pitches. Fastball has some late life and a very high spin rate. His best pitch was undoubtedly his 12/6 curveball which is an absolute dagger and was untouched by Tech hitters in his 2 inning stint. Jordan had his entire arsenal at his disposal and kept the Jackets constantly off balance. I believe he will definitely be an integral part of this Carolina pitching staff come this spring.
Tech was able to get a couple runners on in the top of the 7th, one from an error by Wes Clarke at 1B but Callil and Campbell turn an impressive double play up the middle to get the Gamecocks out of another jam.
TJ Shook worked a quick, smooth inning in the 8th primarily only having to use his FB which sat 89-91 but was able to locate it really well.
The Jackets create some late inning magic and put pressure on Graham Lawson in the top of the 9th with a 2 singles and a walk to load the bases. Then a tapper in no man's land in front of home plate allows the Jackets to tie it up. Then next at bat another Jacket finds a hole poking one just over Clarke at first to plate 2 giving the Jackets a 5-3 lead. Graham escapes the deadly 9th inning rally by Tech with a 107 mph missile off the bat to deep center field that was tracked down and caught to end the frame
Carolina wouldn't go down easy in the bottom of the 9th, stringing back to back hit-and-runs together catching the Jackets out of position to plate 1 and tie it up after a pass ball. Wes Clarke came through with some late inning heroics for the Gamecocks turning a 91 mph fastball around for a 3-run homer to the deepest part of the park off the batter's eye, 106 mph off the bat, to make it 8-5 Gamecocks.
The scrimmage however didn't end there as the teams flip it over to begin the top of the 10th (of 12 innings) where Dylan Harley gave up a no doubt solo shot to right to start the inning. Harley was a little all over the place but was able to get the next few batters out to limit the damage to 1 making it 8-6.
The Gamecocks got that run right back with a solo shot from Colin Burgess in the bottom of the 10th from a line drive down left field line off a position player/2-way guy for Tech to make it 9-6.
Noah Campbell had a good at bat, doing his job and hitting a sac fly to deep left off another position player for the Jackets to score once more for the Gamecocks in the bottom of the 11th extending their lead to 10-6.
A quite 12th for both sides wrapped up the scrimmage with a final score from Founders Park in Columbia, SC:
South Carolina 10 | Georgia Tech 6
