RHP Owen White (Carson HS, NC) has been dominant in five starts this season, but has especially stood out the last two weeks. He struck out 14 in six innings on March 16, allowing just one hit and throwing 76 percent strikes. Apart from a shaky fourth inning on March 23, White dominated again, striking out 11 in six innings while allowing two hits, three walks and a hit batter. He hasn’t given up a run yet this spring, logging 23 innings and striking out 44. Opponents have managed just six hits off him in that time while drawing eight walks.

White cruised through his first three innings Friday, pounding the strike zone with a 90-93 mph fastball with arm-side life. He hit the second batter of the game when a fastball got away from him, but he struck out six of the first 10 batters he faced. He struggled in the fourth inning, walking two, but was able to strand the runners with a fielder’s choice and two more strikeouts. The fourth-inning struggles stemmed from him rushing through his delivery and losing his arm slot. When he’s on time, he pitches to the lower half of the zone and both sides of the plate.

The changeup was White’s go-to pitch in this outing as he threw it to righties and lefties and got opposing hitters to swing through it consistently. It has run and sink, sitting 82-85, and has the makings of being an above-average pitch down the road. The breaking ball varies, ranging from 77-81, but is at it’s best as a slider with tilt and hard break. Of his first eight strikeouts, two came on the fastball and three were on the changeup and breaking ball. The two hits were weak contact, a double off the end of the bat and glove of a leaping third baseman in the fifth and then a soft single in the sixth. White finished with 94 pitches, 63 for strikes.

If White continues to pitch like that, he’s unlikely to make it to South Carolina.