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Showcase  | Story  | 2/7/2020

Williams Shines In PG Debut

Blake Dowson     
Photo: Garrett Williams (Garrett Williams)

There’s that one scene in ‘Dodgeball.’ Patches O’Houlihan, played by Rip Torn, is brought in to train the Average Joes.

“If you can dodge a wrench, you can dodge a ball,” he says.



Call it cross training.

Garrett Williams, a 2021 grad from College Station, Texas, has a similar story. Well, maybe it’s not that similar. Williams has a pitching coach who grew up in Canada. He grew up on the ice.

Williams has a nasty 81 mph slider that he showed off at the National Underclass Main Event Showcase in December. The two – Williams’ pitching coach’s upbringing and his slider – will always be connected.

“It’s crazy,” Williams said. “My pitching coach, he’s a big hockey fan. He was born in Canada. He has a hockey puck. I used that the first time I learned how to throw a breaking ball. We just sat there throwing it for nearly an hour. I got the spin down and started incorporating it with the baseball. Over time, it became tighter and more sharp, and I was able to add some velocity on to it over time.”

The 6-foot-5, 190-pound righthanded hurler puts his index and middle fingers on the side of the puck to throw it. If he wants to work on a 12-6 curveball, he gets the puck vertical. For his slider, he works on getting the puck horizontal.

He said it took him a couple months to get used to, but now any time he loses the feel of his slider, he gets the hockey puck back out of his bag and goes to work with it.

It’s an ever-changing process for Williams, who said he has grown about five or six inches since his freshman year. On top of learning the slider, he has to learn how to use his new body each year.

“Last year was a big growth spurt,” he said. “It was like two or three inches. Getting your fastball command, getting your front side to land in the right spot in the right moment, it can get really mis-timed. It can be hard to get used to the new mechanics [when you’re growing]. When I was younger, they tried to keep my leg-kick low and keep my toe pointed down. But I really enjoy the high leg-kick. I try to model it off of Tim Lincecum.”

He said he has been in a good spot with his mechanics. That’s why he knew he was ready to pitch on a stage like Perfect Game.

Williams wanted to go to the Main Event in Fort Myers to show people all of the hard work he has done thus far in his career.

“It seemed like a pretty good opportunity to get exposure,” he said of the showcase. “I hadn’t really ever been to a big event like that before. I just wanted to venture out and show off my abilities, get noticed a little bit. It was an opportunity to go out there at one of the highest levels in high school in terms of playing in a showcase.”



He said he didn’t know what to expect. It was his first Perfect Game event. The National Underclass Main Event is an eye-opening start.

Williams said he was going into it with an open mind.

His Perfect Game scouting report now reads that he ‘looked the part’ of a top prospect at the event.

“Knowing that there were over 1,000 guys going, I knew it wasn’t going to be a guarantee that I was going to get looked at,” Williams said. “I knew I’d have to do well to get into contact with people. My mindset was just to go out there and show off my talents, and whatever happens, happens.

“I was really pleased with how it ended up. I was a little surprised with how it went for me.”

His fastball, up to 89 mph, was the third-hardest thrown pitch of the entire event. His command was impressive, too.

The combination of those two things, plus his slider that missed plenty of bats during his time on the mound, landed him on both the Top Prospect List and the Top Prospect Team of the event.

And now, his phone is ringing off the hook.

“Right after that event, my recruitment skyrocketed,” Williams said. “I hadn’t really heard from anybody before that. I actually hadn’t really even thought about playing college ball until I went to that event. So it was huge for me.”
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