2/15/2018 12:00:00 AM
Luke Bartnicki (2018, Marietta, Ga.) is well known already and as the season started for the Walton Raiders, the Georgia Tech signee got the nod on the bump against a talented South Forsyth team. Bartnicki threw four innings in front of a number of professional scouts looking on. The first inning showed the most impressive stuff in terms of velocity and projection as the fastball sat 89-92 touching 93 mph. He threw that fastball along with a pair of offspeed pitches. His slider was short breaking at 81 mph and his changeup was 82 mph with some deception. There is likely more velocity in the tank for Bartnicki and it would not be surprising if the senior from Marietta, Georgia made that jump over the course of this spring.
Landon Sims (2019, Cumming, Ga.) was the counterpart to Bartnicki and showed big-time pitching prospect type stuff on the mound. The righthander sat 90-93 mph with his fastball and did pump out a 95 mph pitch on the last pitch of the first inning that concluded an inning in which he struck out the side. Sims may throw with some effort, but the delivery is repeated and it shows with his great control. The Mississippi State commit commanded three pitches for strikes and the changeup was the offspeed pitch of choice. His changeup showed good deception and had hitters continually leaking out onto their front foots for soft contact. The righthander is a top arm to keep an eye on in the 2019 class.