Scrimmage observations: Jan. 26
The baseball team scrimmaged at Kentucky Proud Park on Sunday afternoon
It’s been a rough January as far as the weather goes in Lexington, but it warmed up enough this weekend for the Kentucky baseball team to scrimmage the past couple of days at Kentucky Proud Park.
The season opener at Lipscomb is now just 19 days away. The competition on Sunday was strong as the Black Team won 8-6 in six innings, though the Blue Team rallied from an 8-3 deficit in the final frame and brought the winning run to the plate. I’ll provide some thoughts from the scrimmage in a little bit, though I didn’t want to get bogged down in play-by-play action for this piece.
However, here’s how the teams lined up on Sunday:
Black team
CF Will Marcy
LF Cole Hage
2B Patrick Herrera (Herrera moved over to third later in the scrimmage)
DH James McCoy (McCoy moved to 1B later in the scrimmage)
3B Ethan Hindle (Moved to second base when Herrera went to third)
1B Hudson Brown
Nolan Belcher (Moved to catcher later in the scrimmage)
SS Aidan Larkin
Pitchers: RHP Chase Alderman, LHP Logan Grubb, RHP Cooper Robinson
Blue team
SS Tyler Bell
1B Dylan Koontz
DH Ryan Schwartz (moved to catcher later in the scrimmage)
Pitchers: LHP Leighton Harris, RHP Nate Harris, RHP Bradley Ferrell
From what I recall, there was no ninth hitter on the Blue team. Outfielder/DH Eli Small did not participate in the scrimmage after getting banged up during Saturday’s scrimmage while diving for a ball, and senior catcher Devin Burkes did not bat, but he did catch for the Blue team.
Observations
Center fielder Will Marcy went the opposite way for a home run off Leighton Harris in his first at-bat to start the scoring for the Black team. They loaded the bases with two outs but Harris struck out Pelletier to end the threat.
EKU transfer Chase Alderman made the start for the Black team. His fastball was in the low 90s and he was also throwing a slider in the low 80s. He didn’t allow any runs over two innings of work. He committed a throwing error on a ball hit back to him, which moved Luke Lawrence to 2B, but he got some nice defensive help to keep runs off the board. Herrera made a good sliding play to his left to throw out Tyler Bell. Alderman then retired Dylan Koontz on a fastball out of the zone, and Hage made a nice sliding catch in left field on a ball that Kyuss Gargett hit 102 miles per hour. Alderman wasn’t cleared until the end of fall, but he’s in a good position to pitch on the weekends this season.