Hurricanes Baseball Scrimmage 10/15/2023

Baseball resumed Sunday morning wrapping up week one after Saturday’s scrimmage was postponed due to inclement weather. Four new pitchers to evaluate, two of which (Gage Ziehl, Rafe Schlesinger) will probably be showcased come opening weekend. Opportunity to see a new face, a grad student (Drew Dwyer) who made his circuit at Indian River, FAU, and Lynn University located in Boca. At Lynn, he earned Collegiate Baseball Writers South Region First Team, ABCA/Rawlings All-Region Team, and D2 All-South Region honors. In 2023 he went 4-4 with a 2.59 ERA while striking out 94 batters with over 80 innings pitched. His resume continued with quality starts throwing 6+innings in 10 of his 12 starts. Struck out 10+ batters 4 times. On paper, this is exactly what our pitching roster badly needs. Obviously, he is being looked at for one of of starters and today was our first look. 4th pitcher, Renzo Gonzalez is a two-way player better known for his hitting and playing the OF/1B.

Today brought out the scouts mainly to observe 3 of our four starters and they did not disappoint in the opening innings. Gage started the festivities in grand style striking out the first three batters faced( Eric Fernandez,Luca Reyes,Carlos Perez). Scouts had him clocked between 91-94 MPH. Gage’s opposite number for the first 3 innings was Drew Dwyer. Like Gage, the first batter faced Renzo Gonzalez in his only appearance today at bat struck out. The next two batters walked and coming to the plate was Lorenzo Carrier who has been literally crushing the ball all week. Lorenzo laid into one deep into center field but all for naught. Deep enough to advance runner to third. The ever-dangerous Edgardo Villegas came up with runners on the corners but Drew held forcing Edgardo to ground out back to him 1-3

The second inning was uneventful for both pitchers with Gage picking up a pair of strikeouts extending his strikeouts to 4 straight before giving up a walk to Jack Kulikowski. Drew had an easy 3up/3 down inning. 

Their final inning of work did not exactly go according to script for Gage. As for Drew another walk in the park with a 3up/3down performance. A welcome introduction. If his record carries over from Lynn going beyond 6 innings in 10 of his 12 starts, we just might have had our first look at one of our starting pitchers in the rotation either for weekend duty or midweek. As earlier stated, things did not go well for Gage. I am guessing everything went downhill after hitting Gaby Gutierrez on the wrist sending major concern that the hit was season-ending or a bulk of it taking out one of our star hitters. Gaby was in definite pain holding onto his left wrist and although he wanted to stay in the game, JD pulled him. Gage lost his rhythm after the hit to Gaby. It got into his head walking AJ Goytia followed by Jason Torres getting the first hit of today’s scrimmage. The person he least wanted to see, Lorenzo Carrier, stepped into the batter’s box. Already having crushed a deep flyout in the 1st and already 2 HRs this week, added #3 with a bomb to RF just staying on the inside of the foul pole. Not exactly how Gage wanted his day to end.

The next set of pitchers are Rafe Schlesinger and a surprise choice of Renzo Gonzalez. I can’t remember if he even pitched last year, but today given the opportunity to include his name in the BP rotation. Rafe having a great finish last season picked up where he left off doing likewise what Gage did in the first, striking out the same three batters (Fernandez, Reyes,Perez). In copycat fashion striking out 2 of the 3 faced. Renzo on the other hand did not have an impressive look if he thought of pulling dual duty of utility/pitcher for the coming season. Loaded the bases via the walk and WP to record a run. Next inning, control continued to haunt him walking two after striking out the leadoff batter and having the ball get by the catcher. With bases loaded, 5th batter faced, Luca Reyes, Hit in the back for a hard way to get an RBI which concluded Renzo’s day and possibly his pitching hopes. I much prefer him with a bat in hand than a ball on the mound.

The 6th and final inning for Rafe, went to the toilet like Gage’s did; probably more so. Rafe gave up an initial walk to Gaby who returned to the field in the top half of the following inning after being hit on his wrist earlier. Following Gaby’s walk, Rafe repeats the same with AJ Goytia putting runners on 1st and 2nd, no outs with Jason Torres coming to the plate. Rafe hits a line drive with no elevation clearing the LF fence easily. He hit it so hard that you hardly had a chance to realize what he had just done. With 3 runs already on the board, next to the plate Mr. “HR King” himself, Lorenzo Carrier, who must have felt bad about missing out on all the glory that just happened. Not to be outdone, and to put an exclamation point on his week’s performance, sends a moonshot to center for his second of the day and 4th of the week. Gage ended with his 5th batter, Edgardo Villegas, with a single ending that had started out as a performance that really impressed the scouts and wiped out all the glowing remarks achieved. Plenty of time to redeem himself.

The first week of scrimmage draws to a close and the first opportunity to evaluate new players and see how our returnees are progressing. The major concern last year was dealing with our Achilles Heel (pitching) and it appears we are heading in the same direction. Until the third inning  Ziehl and Schlesinger, I thought there was major progress by both. Still not erasing what they gave us their two two innings and mentality Gage might not have been all there after hitting Gaby. As for Rafe, I have no idea what turned around two flawless innings. I guess he hadn’t had to pitch to the likes of Torres and Carrier. A good surprise was the pitching performance of Drew Dwyer who made a statement of his own: “I am ready to be one of the starters”.

It appears from the performance at the plate, that the HR ball has not left us. We have definite power that will appear throughout the lineup. I don’t know what sort of conditioning Lorenzo had over the summer, but he is definitely locked into the groove. With 4 HRs (2 on Thursday and 2 today) he is definitely the leader going into the clubhouse. Too early to say who the starting nine will be, but it will be a state of flux working this out. Again overloaded in the OF with quality bats which will be the hardest to select from. I will wait and probably be all wrong in the end. The IF is not as overwhelming as to who is in and who is out but still a lot to select from. Several candidates for each position to select from. The only thing I can state with almost 100% accuracy is Carlos Perez catching. Still burns in my mind how poorly he performed postseason but that was then and now is now. The next few weeks should make things a bit clearer.

The next scrimmage is scheduled for Tuesday which I will not be attending due to being only 4 innings and the travel from the Keys. My next scrimmage will be Thursday for 8 innings. Friday and Saturday are scheduled for the same. No start time as of yet for Tuesday’s scrimmage. I will advise when I know.