8/9/2015
Vegas Gold vs. Texas Orange
Vegas Gold Highlights
Thaddeus Huber (2018 RHP, Kearney, NE): Huber, only entering his sophomore year, was impressive on the mound on Saturday evening. Throwing 3 innings and racking up 3 strikeouts and shutting out the opposition, Huber was up to 85 MPH with a clean arm action. He also showed off very good feel for his off speed pitches, with a 12/6 CB that showed good depth and spin along with a deceptive changeup that is easy out of his hand with fading action at the plate.
Kale Litzelman (2017 OF, Hotchkiss, CO): Litzelman, a rising junior left-hander, worked 3 scoreless, hitless innings while racking up 4 strikeouts. He creates excellent angle to the plate from an extended 3/4 slot and works at the bottom of the zone with a running, sinking fastball that worked in the 75-78 range, topping at 79 MPH. He projects well moving forward both in terms of pitchability as well as velocity.
Jordan Litke (2017 RHP, Gurnee, IL): Litke worked the final 3 innings for the Vegas Gold team, allowing only 1 run and striking out a pair. He showed an impressive ability to generate good sink on his fastball, keeping the ball off of opposing hitters' barrels and eliciting a lot of weak contact, including a good number of ground balls, especially when he was able to command his fastball down in the zone.
Cameron Greer (2016 2B, West Bloomfield, MI): Greer recorded a pair of hits on Saturday evening, continuing to show advanced contact ability with an excellent approach. He's able to make solid contact to all parts of the field on pitches all over the strike zone, with an innate ability to stay on the ball and put the bat to ball with hand quickness and feel for the barrel.
Ryan Moritz (2017 SS, Omaha, NE): Moritz showed off some legitimate pop during batting practice on Saturday morning, and then showed it again in game action by smashing a leadoff triple in the 8th inning and eventually coming into score. He generates good bat speed with some natural loft, which results in solid present power and even more power projection moving forward as well.
Texas Orange Highlights
Branden Knorr (2016 RHP, Ann Arbor, MI): Knorr, a 6'4" right-hander, was very impressive in his start for the Texas Orange team. Going 3 shutout innings and allowing only 1 hit, Knorr racked up 7 strikeouts--all swinging--by doing an excellent job of commanding his mid-80's fastball (topping at 86 several times), and mixing in a hard breaking slider and feel for a fading changeup.
Justin Romic (2016 RHP, Winnetka, IL): Romic went the final 3 frames for the Texas Orange team, allowing only 2 hits to go along with 3 strikeouts, and showing a heavy fastball that touched as high as 82 MPH and worked comfortably in the 78-81 MPH range. He worked the fastball well to both sides and mixed in a deep 11/5-shaped curveball and a solid CH with some tumbling action.
James Raffauf (2017 RHP, Richmond, IL): Raffauf worked 3 innings for the Texas Orange team, allowing only a single hit and accumulating 3 strikeouts over those 3 frames. He generates good angle and plane to the plate from an extended high 3/4 slot, making the ball very hard to square up for opposing hitters. He held his velocity well and did a good job pounding the strike zone, generating a lot of weak contact to go along with his 3 strikeouts.
Chantz Stover (2016 RHP, South Bend, IN): Stover, like his other pitching teammates, worked 3 innings on Saturday evening. He allowed only 1 run on 1 hit over those three frames, collecting 2 strikeouts in the process. He has a short, quick arm action that gets downhill pretty well, working 78-81 with some life to the arm side on his fastball. He mixed in both a slider and a curveball, throwing the slider in the 69-70 range and even breaking a bat when he ran it inside on a left-handed hitter. The curve showed good 12/6 shape with quality spin as well.
Cobi Sabo (2016 3B, Homewood, IL): Sabo had a very good batting practice earlier on Saturday, and he carried that over into game action as well. He drilled a hard single during game action, continuing to show his advanced barrel control and ability to match the plane of the pitch with the plane of his swing. He has strength off the barrel and power projection as well.