In a longer look as a hitter today, The First Academy senior Adam Haseley (Univ. of Virginia commit) offered further evidence of advanced hitting ability. He accelerated the barrel through contact a couple of times, and generally appeared to have better rhythm to hit in his at bats than yesterday.

To make him even more interesting, he threw a complete game shutout, allowing only 2 hits and striking out 9 – proof of his two-way ability. His fastball was 84-85 with some tailing action, while his breaking ball was kind of a loose three quarters breaker in the mid 70s. It’s pretty clear that even though everything he does isn’t necessarily pretty, he can do a lot of things well. He was kind of upright in his delivery and slung pitches from a 3/4 or maybe even a little lower arm slot. It was easy to get a good look at the ball from his hand, it looked like it came out soft and tumbled some – but it didn’t, and that’s probably a good reason for his success today and previously. The delivery doesn’t scream command, but he issued just two walks this outing.

Seemingly every team has at least one, and the guy I wanted to see more of for the Royals was junior infielder Chadwick Word (Furman Univ. commit). He hits in the middle of the order and made several good passes on his way to a 3 for 4 day. He looks like he has some feel to hit along with a short right handed stroke.