H.S. BASEBALL: Rolison dominates for USJ
It wasn't Kershaw vs. Bumgarner, but when USJ baseball hosted Lexington on Wednesday afternoon all the attention was on a pair of lefthanded pitchers.
About 15 or 20 scouts, from teams including the Cardinals, Mariners and Red Sox, were present to watch Lexington senior Ethan Small. But USJ junior Ryan Rolison was a little more effective Wednesday in a 6-1 Bruin win that was part of the SportsPlus tournament.
Rolison has committed to Ole Miss and Small is headed to Mississippi State.
"I was pumped about the game," Rolison said. "I know Ethan, I've played with him, and I knew he was going to be tough to beat. I was just going to try to throw as many strikes as I could and let my defense help me."
Rolison pitched six innings, allowing one run on one hit in the third inning. Darrius Bomer walked with two outs and leadoff man Tyler Anderson tripled to right field for a 1-0 Lexington lead.
Rolison struck out two batters in every inning but one, and the last four strikeout victims didn't swing at strike three. USJ coach Jack Peel said Rolison has improved his changeup, and Rolison said he shortened his stride Wednesday to better locate his curveball.
"To me those are the two top pitchers in this area, so it was great to see those two guys go head to head," Peel said. "I was excited just to even see what it was going to look like myself."
Peel said he told a couple scouts about Rolison and they are aware of him but aren't scouting him right now because he's only a junior.
Small struck out seven batters in the first three innings. USJ's Alec Hardin, who was 3-for-3, hit an RBI single in the bottom of the third to score Jake Overton for a 1-1 tie.
USJ's Seth Rohlwing smacked a first-pitch homer off the scoreboard in left-center to open the bottom of the fourth. The Division II-A state champion Bruins hit only five home runs last year, all by the now-graduated Joseph Patterson.
"I was surprised that he hit it as far as he did, but I'm not surprised he hit it hard. He squares balls up pretty good," Peel said of Rohlwing, unable to resist a little tease. "And luckily the wind's blowing like it is, we got it up in the jet stream and we tip our hat to the good Lord on that one."
Small surrendered a double to John Stanford right after that but then got out of the inning, finishing with eight total strikeouts and leaving with a 2-1 deficit.
USJ pounced in the fifth with Small out. Logan Carey hit a two-run triple that was misread by the centerfielder, and Garrett Guymon singled to left to score Carey. One inning later, William Jones scored on Overton's sac fly.
"What we really focused on this year and last year is making routine plays, just staying in the moment and not letting one bad inning affect the whole game," Rolison said. "We're doing a good job of that so far and hopefully can keep it up."
Craig Thomas, 425-9634
