New Madrid grad takes advantage of 'opportunity' in 19-U Squirrel debut

Aycorp Charleston Fighting Squirrel pitcher Brady Swims throws against the Southeast Tropics on Thursday at Hillhouse Park in Charleston.

Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

The summer regular season is underway for the Aycorp Charleston Fighting Squirrels, but in many regards, veteran manager Michael Minner considers this “spring training.”

“It’s early,” Minner said following his team’s first game recently. “We’re going to see what guys can do.”

The Squirrels opened their season with a split (10-0 loss and a 5-0 win) against their rival the Southeast Tropics on Thursday and will face Cape Legion on Tuesday for a doubleheader at Cape Central High School.

Minner’s pencil was busy on Thursday, as he had 14 different players get an at-bat against the Tropics, he used nine different players in multiple positions, and he allowed six pitchers to get work.

“We’ve got some guys who haven’t played in a while,” Minner said, “and we have some guys who have been playing, who need some breaks.

“These are opportunities. We’ve got to find guys who are going to compete on every pitch.”

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Pitching was way ahead of the hitting on Thursday at Hillhouse Park, as summertime rivals Aycorp Charleston Fighting Squirrels and the Southeast Tropics split a doubleheader with the Tropics taking the opener 10-0 and the Squirrels bouncing back with a 5-0 win in the nightcap.

One of those players who has been off for a while is recent New Madrid County Central player Brady Swims.

Swims hasn’t seen live pitching or thrown a pitch since May 13 in the Eagles’ 7-6 loss to eventual MSHSAA Class 3 District 1 champion East Prairie, but he was very active in his debut with the 19-U Squirrel squad after playing for the 17-U team last summer.

“He kind of settled in and did some good things,” Minner said after watching Swims throw 2 2/3 innings in the opening game and allowing just two hits, walking three and striking out three.

In his span, Swims did not allow a run to score.

“He has been off for a while,” Minner said. “So that was his first competitive situation and he got better.”

Swims threw 27 strikes in 55 pitches, and Minner said that was typical of his staff, which “didn’t have great “command” against the Tropics in the opener.

“I don’t think anybody (of the four Squirrel pitchers) had a good command of their curveball,” Minner said. “Now you can’t throw a secondary pitch and we struggled to throw strikes with our fastball, too.”

That wasn’t the case in the second game, as starter Blake Wilburn (2 1/3 innings, one hit, no runs, five strikeouts) and reliever Brady Smith (4 2/3 innings, no runs, two strikeouts) were both effective.

Offensively, Swims belted out three hits, including a double in that second game, as well as scoring once and driving in three runs.

“We are giving kids opportunities to show that they belong in the top nine,” Minner said. “Guys will play different positions (Swims played third base, as well) than they played in high school.

“We’ll settle in.”