Thursday, May 8, 2014

Rolled Hickory: First stop in a tour of the Sally League

The host Crawdads made it interesting late but fell 4-2 Wednesday night to the Hagerstown Suns.

Highlights

Crawdads starter Akeem Bostick caught my eye a day before the game. I was looking for players from the Carolinas on the roster, and he's one of four (all pitchers, see below). Bostick signed out of high school with the Texas Rangers for a nice bonus, and went 4-1 in rookie league ball.
He went 5 1/3 innings Wednesday, giving up six hits but mostly staying out of trouble for only one run. He is very quick to be ready to throw the next pitch, which I loved, and his velocity was nice.
I was lucky to meet his mom on the way out, and told her I'll be watching his progress over the next few years. I think he will become an even better pitcher as he fills out and puts in the repetitions (as is true for most of us!).
It's fun to be at a game where there are so few fans in attendance (513 official but we saw about half that many) that we could hear everything the players said to each other.

Crawdads right fielder Nomar Gazara didn't earn points in our group - he bobbled a ball in the field and failed to back up a throw to first on a bunt that could have been costly. The bunt was ruled foul after the runner reached second, but Gazara was on our bad list.

We chuckled at the announcement during the second inning that "the carousel is now open." Part of the charm of a Class A ball park is that you get to ride a merry-go-round.

Crawdads Carolinas connections

Akeem Bostick - West Florence (S.C.) High
Josh McElwee - Newberry College and Andrews (S.C.) High
Ryne Slack - Spartanburg Methodist and Ninety Six (S.C.) High
Tyler Smith - USC Sumter and Sumter (S.C.) High

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is something I would love to do. My mom and I both love baseball and she catches me up on the scores of the Nationals if she knows I won't be able to listen through internet radio. Unconventional, yes, but it's something we both love and she talks about the players like they are her sons.

Anonymous said...

Everything Ellyn said was right on, plus they had a cute carousel for kids to ride, something going on between most innings, and we just know we are seeing players who will be BIG in a few years!

Julie Ritterskamp