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Aaron Rawl
Rawl is an experienced weekend starter, having filled in as the Sunday starter a year ago following lefty Matt Campbell and righty Billy Buckner, both of whom were drafted early by the Kansas City Royals last June. Rawl entered the game with 29 career victories as a Gamecock, ranking him ninth all-time among South Carolina pitchers with plenty of games left remaining on the young season.
During the game you could tell Rawl was trying to establish the outside half of the plate, especially when pitching to right-handed batters. I'm not sure if he was missing more than he's used to, or if he's used to getting those outside pitches called for strikes by the men in blue, but either way the Pepperdine batters were doing a good job laying off his outside pitches forcing him to come inside. When Rawl did, the Waves' batters were making consistent, hard contact off him, even when recording outs. While Rawl was working in the low-90s with his fastball, the pitch didn't offer much deception or movement, which is probably why he prefers working on the outer half of the plate. He also throws a decent curveball, but he was missing consistently on the outer half with that pitch as well, and he didn't seem confident throwing it over the plate. Rawl's arm action also slowed noticeably on several of his curveballs, so he could stand to find a more consistent, uniform delivery so he's not tipping his pitches.
At 6'0", 195 pounds, Rawl is built shorter yet strong, with a strong lower half. While he seemed to like working on the outside half of the plate, you could also tell he is accustomed to establishing that half so he can come back inside to jam pitchers with high heat. Rawl also displayed his emotions somewhat on the mound, getting frustrated at times with some of the scorching hits he was allowing. However, he also responded in an equally positive outward way when his teammates made a stellar defensive play behind him that helped fire him up just enough to get himself out of an early jam. A very good control pitcher, he entered with only one walk allowed on the season, and he gave up only 17 last year in 122 innings of work. While he didn't have the same kind of control today, he still only walked two batters in five innings of work, one of them coming in the top of the sixth, an inning he should have never started. Rawl clearly had labored enough through five admirable innings of work, giving up a big two-run home run to Pepperdine's Chad Tracy in the top of the fifth. His final line: Five innings pitched, 4 runs (3 earned), 10 hits, 2 walks and three strikeouts.
Kea Kometani
Hawaii native Kea Kometani like Rawl is more of a control pitcher. Unlike Rawl, the 6'5" projectable Kometani brought his "A" game to the Metrodome. With a mid-to-high-80s fastball, a slider and a split-fingered fastball, Kometani worked very well down in the strike zone. The South Carolina batters had trouble making much contact off the Pepperdine senior ace for much of the game, as Kometani induced plenty of ground balls and also was able to dial-up his fastball a few notches up in the strike zone when he needed a punch out.
Kometani didn't allow a hit until the third inning, which was a solid base hit to left field from South Carolina's Brendan Winn. He didn't allow a run until the bottom of the sixth inning, a run that scored on a weakly hit ground ball with two outs hit by Steve Pearce that took a funny hop over Pepperdine's third baseman, Patrick Rooney. I thought that Pepperdine might have been wise to get another pitcher ready after that sixth inning much like South Carolina should have sent a new pitcher out to start the sixth, but Coach Rodriguez stuck with Kometani, a move that paid off as Kometani cruised through both the seventh and eighth innings. He ran into more trouble in the ninth, but he wasn't getting much help from his defense in the final frame. Overall Kometani tossed 8.2 innings, allowing five runs (two earned), 11 hits, and no walks while striking out 10.
It will be interesting to see how much pro interest these two starting pitchers receive. For the most part, if they had the right stuff they probably would already be pitching for some professional organization. There were approximately eight to 10 scouts in attendance, but only three to four of those scouts were clocking the two starting pitchers. I could see Rawl getting interest given his solid stuff and intensity on the mound. I'm not sure how far he'll make it with a professional organization, but I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see him find his place for several years, even if it isn't on the big-league level. Kometani has the pitching frame that scouts like, but he did have somewhat of a max-effort to his delivery, which is not something you want to see from a guy that tops out at 90 miles per hour on a good day. He threw an intriguing splitter, and as noted he has good control and works well down in the zone. That mixture could allow him to enjoy some success as a pro, but his lack of velocity will hurt him when he starts to face more advanced hitters.
Since Kometani pitched so well, I didn't get to see the Pepperdine bullpen in action, as I missed the ninth inning to speak with Andy Hunter, the first baseman for the Minnesota Golden Gophers. I did see two members of the South Carolina bullpen, senior right-hander Cliff Donald and freshman right-hander Wynn Pelzer. While Donald seemed to have a respectable fastball, he didn't offer much other than that, and when hitters had the opportunity to see him more than once they were able to time his fastball fairly easily. That pitch also didn't seem to offer much movement, as the Pepperdine hitters continued to get solid, hard contact off of him just like they did with starter Aaron Rawl.
Wynn Pelzer looked intriguing, and he could very well be a name to watch over the next few years, especially since so many of the other Gamecock pitchers are upperclassmen. When Pelzer first came in, he struggled to find the strike zone, but once he found his rhythm he at least worked around the strike zone much better. He has a live arm, although there is some effort to his delivery.
Let's move on to the hitters, as both teams had plenty of intriguing players to talk about, starting with the South Carolina Gamecocks:
Michael Campbell
According to Baseball America's rankings of draft eligible college players, no player in attendance is rated higher than South Carolina centerfielder Michael Campbell. A talented overall athlete from John Handley High School in Winchester, Virginia, Campbell starred in football and basketball as well as baseball as a Virginia prep. I could quickly see why scouts liked Campbell before he even swung a bat, as he's blessed with a perfectly proportional, athletic build, somewhat like big-league centerfielder Steve Finley. As a sophomore, Campbell played leftfield for the Gamecocks, but he has been moved to patrol centerfield as a junior, where he will be able to showcase his speed and natural athleticism. At the plate he showed a good, quiet stance without any wasted movement in his swing. Campbell made hard contact on several occasions, and overall he went two for five on the day, although one of his hits, his triple in the eighth inning, came on a towering popup that was misplayed by Pepperdine's centerfielder, Adrian Ortiz. His other hit was a solid single up the middle in the sixth. Despite hitting 14 home runs a year ago, Campbell seems to be more of a gap-to-gap hitter at this point in time. While he has good speed, he doesn't have the kind of speed that will make him a misfit on the basepaths. Basically, his tools across the board are very solid, and if he can continue to play centerfield, he has a good shot to make it to the big leagues some day, even if it is as a versatile fourth outfielder.
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