Liberty Baseball Scrimmage Notes for Feb. 11

BeLoudWearRed

Liberty baseball had its second to last scrimmage before the start of the season on February 16th against Quinnipiac. I missed the first few innings, so I’m not real sure how well Todd Hudson and Ryan Butler pitched today. Hudson gave up two runs, and Butler one.

Notes from what I saw of the scrimmage:

The red team may have been a preview of the starting top of the lineup. Left-handed hitter Kane Kepley led off followed by righty Aidan Sweatt, righty, Noah Rabon, lefty Camden Troyer, and righty Cam Foster. Last season, Liberty was entirely too left-handed. This season, Liberty will be far more balanced, which prevents opponents from matching up left-handed pitchers to their advantage.
Trackman pitch and hit info is a great thing. I wish it was available during the game.
Dylan Mathiesen pitched in relief. He was throwing his fastball 92 mph with a spin rate of 2500 rpm. A high spin rate like that makes the ball seem like it is rising with lots of movement. His offspeed stuff was sitting around 79-80 mph with a spin rate around 3000 rpm. That’s elite-level spin.
Brandon Dahlman threw similar stuff. He had an almost identical fastball at 92 mph with 2600 rpm spin, and his offspeed came in at 78-80 mph with 2700 rpm.
Trey Carter pitched well today in what is probably his final warmup to the start of the season. He was throwing 94 mph in a 3 up, 3 down inning. He got a fly ball out to right field, issued a walk, and then induced a weak grounder that Sweatt turned into a double play.
I saw all 6’5″ 230 lbs of RHP Cale Bolton pitch for the first time. He had 3 up, 3 down inning with 2 strike outs and a weak grounder.
Opposing pitchers are going to hate Liberty’s lineup. It may not have a ton of power, but it will have obscene speed. SS Tanner Marsh was batting 9th and singled to move the runner from 1st to 3rd. Kepley stepped to the plate and proceeded to double off of the right-center wall. Marsh had to hold up to make sure it wasn’t caught by Keeter in center. Kepley had to slow down as well. If the ball had been a little more in the gap, it would have been an easy RBI triple on a well-played ball off of the wall in right-center.
Garrett McLaughlin then came on in relief with Kepley on 2nd and Marsh on 3rd. He got a grounder to Joe Waters, who threw Marsh out at the plate by a mile. McLaughlin then got a weak liner to Keeter in center to escape the inning and strand both runners.
Ben Roberts pitched again and was up to 95 mph with his fastball. He has shown much better control since his first outing. A back end of the bullpen of Roberts, Carter, Trey Cooper, and Graham Edwards would be electric.
Brayden Horton and John Simmons caught today. Horton’s injury allows him to throw, but he hasn’t been hitting in the scrimmages. Simmons has some work to do behind the plate, but he hasn’t done bad for his second game at catcher.
Simmons faced fellow LCA alum Ben Blair. In the end, Blair got the better of Simmons, but Simmons hit a opposite field long fly ball down the left field line. Three Hillier made a nice catch on it after running a long way since he had been playing fairly shallow.
The graphic at the top is the Trackman data for a mammoth blast from Todd Hudson. The 110 mph EV is elite. There were only two balls hit harder in the 2023 MLB draft combine. His launch angle of 19.20 degrees is the only thing that kept the ball in the park.
Cooper pitched in this one, but he had an off day on the mound giving up a couple runs to the top of the red team lineup. He struck out Marsh and then walked Kepley. Sweatt one-hopped the right-center wall at the 371 marker for a double with Kepley scoring. Hillier couldn’t throw the ball in so he flipped it to Keeter. Kepley might not have scored if Hillier could throw. Rabon then singled over SS moving Sweatt to 3rd. A Troyer sac fly scored Sweatt. Cooper ended the inning by getting a fly ball from Foster.
Talor Grubbs had a nice 3 up, 3 down outing. He pulled the string to strike out Easton Amundson. McMullan went down on the same pitch. Waters flied out to end the inning.