Watched Pena (San Jacinto) pitch last night, and he was fairly impressive, throwing mid to upper 80s, and working in a slider for the first time this year. He held Hutchinson to 3 runs, after they had scored a bunch on Saturday. San Jacinto was taking no prisoners on the basepaths, and they forced Huthinson into some uncharacteristic errors in their 8-3 win.
Bryce Harper's been ok, but not particularly special. He does seem to have pretty good speed, which I hadn't heard about before. I think he's over-swinging, but that's easy to understand for a 17-year-old who is suddenly playing in front of 10,000-12,000 fans.
His brother Bryan pitched a very nice game yesterday afternoon, holding Faulkner State to 1 hit and 1 run (a towering homer) over 6 innings. Velocity wasn't great (low 80s), but location was very good. That 6 innings was a "complete" game, because his teammates were bashing the hell out of the ball, and the game was ended by the run rule at 18-1.
My favorite player from Southern Nevada so far is Gabe Weidenaar, who has played 3B and CF for them, and has a sweet, sweet swing from the left side. He's hit a couple of home runs, driven several other balls very hard for base hits, and seems completely comfortable pulling inside pitches and driving away pitches to the opposite field. They say he projects to be a SS later (that's what he played in HS), but they're moving him all around this year because of his versatility and some holes created by injuries.
Some of the losers' bracket games are getting pretty wild as teams get into the back half of their pitching staffs. Crowder just eliminated Faulkner State in a 19-18 game that see-sawed back and forth.
Today's my last day here; tonight we'll watch Southern Nevada play Iowa Western, who beat Crowder 12-0 on Sunday. This will only be Iowa's second game so far (this will be Southern Nevada's third game), so presumably their pitching is still in good shape and should offer a good challenge for Southern Nevada's offense.
