I arrived in Houston late Friday night and decided to waste little time getting to work checking out games. My first stop Saturday was to San Jacinto Junior College to see the San Jacinto Gators take on the Blinn Buccaneers in a doubleheader. To get an idea of the kind of talent a school like San Jacinto has one only need to look back to the 2010 draft where they had 9 players drafted, 6 of which signed pro contracts. This year’s version offered another collection of intriguing players as did Blinn.
Today’s first game had an intriguing pitching match up between San Jacinto top pitching prospect Miguel Pena and Blinn lefty Trevor Seidenberger. Some may remember Pena as the highest drafted player from the 2009 draft who did not sign; he was also drafted last season by San Diego yet returned to San Jacinto for his sophomore season. Pena didn’t seem to have his “A” game today, as he struggled some early putting men on base on going to full counts on a number of occasions but like any good pitcher, he battled and found a way to get out of a number of jams he got into, going 6 innings and only giving up one run. His counterpart on the other hand, Seidenberger seemed to work quickly and managed to keep the San Jacinto players off balance, getting a number of them to swing early and often at bad pitches. He got into trouble in the 4th inning and the Gator hitters finally seemed to get to him, executing a text book hit and run to put men at 1st and 3rd with no outs and later bunting home a run. The inning ended with a 4 spot on the board and a 4-1 Gator lead. The Buccaneers came back in the top of the 7th loading the bases against Gator pitcher Tommy Collier (University of Houston recruit) but with no outs and the bases loaded, Collier proceeded to strike out the side to ensure a 4-2 Gator victory (the first game was a 7 inning game).
The second game was the pitching matchup I was really hoping to see when LHP Tyler Wright of San Jacinto (University of Arkansas recruit) took on LHP Matt Hernandez (University of Houston recruit). Much like Seidnberger, Hernandez worked quickly and was 1 hitting San Jacinto through 4 innings. Wright seemed to match him every step of the way going 8 shut outs innings. The Gators bats seemed to settle down late in the game much like they did in the first game scoring 5 runs in the 8th inning and propelling them to a 7-1 win and a sweep in their first conference games.
Thoughts from the games:
1) Between the 2 games, all 4 of the starters were lefthanders.
2) Blinn 1st baseman Matt Baca, a transfer from Alabama, looked an awful lot out there like former Pirates prospect Ron Wright at 6’1 255 pounds.
3) San Jacinto catcher Ryan Hornback, an Ole Miss recruit, threw out 1 of 2 attempted base stealers in game one. The runner that he did throw out was trying to steal 3rd.
4) A couple players I had hoped to see but didn’t were San Jacinto LHP David Rollins and Blinn catcher Nick DeSantiago (University of Texas transfer).
Top 5 Prospects:
1) Tyler Wright LHP San Jacinto
2) Miguel Pena LHP San Jacinto
3) Trevor Seidnberger LHP Blinn
4) Matt Hernandez LHP Blinn
5) Ryan Hornback C San Jacinto
Following this game, I made a stop at the University of Houston for the Houston/ Ole Miss game... Those photos are on the way. The goal for Sunday is to head over to Sugarland to catch a few of Anthony Rendons at bats since it doesn't sound as though he'll be playing third. I'll get those photos up as soon as possible.
Miguel Pena- San Jacinto
Tyler Wright- San Jacinto
Matt Hernandez- Blinn
Seth Hornback- San Jacinto
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