KISSIMMEE, Fla. – In the midst of a dark chill late Saturday night at the Perfect Game World Showcase, a quintet of pitchers from the class of 2019 generated some serious heat. And the top flame-throwing arm belonged to Trevor McDonald.
McDonald, a 6-foot-2, 180-pound right-hander from Lucedale, Miss., and a senior at George County High School, delivered his fastball from the mound to home plate at 95 mph, tying an event record held by five others, including the St. Louis Cardinals’ Andrew Miller (2003 World Showcase).
Four other 2019 righties were also throwing heat on the chilly evening: Luis Perez Ruiz (Florida) was gunned at 94 mph, and Irvin Machuca Lopez (Florida), Gage Singer (Missouri) and Brandon Smith (Georgia) were all gunned at 93 mph.
McDonald said he took a break from pitching in the fall, and instead of throwing he started working out. He put on some weight and felt quite a bit stronger as a result, and he could tell that he was throwing harder once he started doing some pitching again a couple of weeks ago.
To verify that hunch, McDonald’s dad, Larry, went out and bought a radar gun and it showed right away that Trevor was throwing in the low-90s; he hit 95 on that gun for the first time last week.
“After that, I was pretty excited about coming out here,” McDonald said Sunday morning. “Last night I did it again and I was pretty happy about it.”
McDonald had previously played in four PG tournaments with four different programs, the first in 2016 when his fastball topped-out at 84 mph. He hit 86 at the 2017 PG WWBA 16u Perfect Game-East Cobb Invitational and then hit 89 at the PG WWBA 17u National Championship last July. This was his first PG showcase experience.
“I was just trying to keep the same mindset and stay relaxed and throw strikes,” he said. “Actually I set my goal to throw 92 and when I came out here and threw 95, I was pretty excited about it.”
PG bloggers got the news out immediately late Saturday night and it didn’t take long for McDonald’s coach at George County High School, Brandon Davis, to catch wind of it. Davis, McDonald said, is pretty good at promoting his players and quickly got the word out.
McDonald has signed his letter-of-intent with South Alabama in Mobile, which is about a 40-minute drive from the McDonald’s home in Lucedale. With that 95 mph velo now attached to his name, there isn’t any question that his stock in the 2019 MLB June Amateur Draft has risen considerably.
“I’ve definitely been thinking about the draft,” he said. “It’s always been one of my goals to be drafted.”