By PAUL GOTHAM
It’s been said baseball is a game of inches. No New York Collegiate Baseball League team understands this better than the 2014 Sherrill Silversmiths whose season ended when the tying run was gunned down at the plate for the final out in the deciding game of the Eastern Divisional Series.
A winter of discontent comes to an end when the Silversmiths take the field Monday, June 1st. The Smitties look to build upon what was their first post-season appearance in organization history. Nick Banman (Fort Scott Community College), Tyler Mitzell (Neosho Community College) and Mitch Sloan (Fort Scott CC) will lead the way.
“Mitch is highly athletic,” Fort Scott head coach John Hill III said recently by phone. “We probably overplayed him toward the end of the year, but he was so good defensively we just dealt with the struggles with the bat.”
The freshman centerfielder collected eight extra-base hits and hit .244 in 47 games this season.
“He’s one of the best centerfielders if not the best that I’ve had in my coaching career,” added the 12th-year coach. “He can really cover ground and get jumps. He has a clean exchange without extra steps and is hyper-proficient at hitting his cut.
“He threw a guy out in the first round of the playoffs that I had zero expectation of throwing him out. It was actually the tying run. He doesn’t have an absolute cannon. He’s not a 94-95 arm out there, but he gets rid of it quickly, and it’s very accurate.”
Hill would like to see the Paoloa, Kansas native improve his ability to bunt.
“If he had a bunt game, he would have hit .350-.375. That’s how fast he is. He needs to work on it. He gets down the line better than anyone I’ve ever coached.”
Mitzell finished 4-2 in 15 appearances for the Panthers this spring. The 6-3 right-hander fanned 18 in 42 innings of work.
“He is real close to being a bona fide Division I weekend guy,” Neosho CC head coach Steve Murry stated. “He will be by hopefully the end of summer if not by the end of the fall.”
Along with an upper 80s fastball, Mitzell can throw his breaking ball in any count. But as Murry points out the freshman is adding to his arsenal.
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“He commands two but is close to four including a knuckle ball or split finger,” Murry added. It’s more of a split with him. We had to tone down his change up because that’s what he’s trying to learn. He never had to use that in high school, so we have to take some off it compared to his fastball. He was getting that by the end of the year and was very effective with that. With the breaking ball he’s pretty consistent, and on the split the movement speaks for itself.
“He’s going to be a pro prospect. He’ll have a lot of interest next fall. We’re hoping he has a good summer.”
Banman split time between third base and pitcher at Fort Scott this spring.
“He’s 6-5 with a wingspan of 6-7/6-8,” Hill explained. “When he throws, it’s on a laser. It does not go down. Every scout that watches him throw across the infield wants to see him throw on the mound. It’s beyond impressive.”
“It’s a straight, downhill plane because he’s right over the top,” Hill added. “He needs to improve on his off-speed but he was averaging two strike outs per inning for his first 13 or 14 innings of the year. He can get it done on the mound. His highest ceiling is on the mound.”
Banman also hit .263 with eight home runs and 33 RBI.
“He hit in the five hole for the vast majority of the season. His overall average isn’t very impressive but if you dive deeper and going into batting average with runners in scoring position, especially with two outs, he was the second highest on our team.”
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