Prep Baseball Report Florida is excited to announce that it has partnered with St. Petersburg College to provide coverage and support to the long running JUCO Kickoff Classic at Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater, FL, taking place January 25-27. This round robin event features seven Junior Colleges from all parts of Florida: St. Petersburg College, Indian River, Miami-Dade, Chipola, State College of Florida, College of Central Florida, South Florida State.

 

DAY 1

Indian River - 4
St. Petersburg College - 3

The opening game of the JUCO Kickoff Classic featured St. Pete College and Indian River. Indian River would come away with the 4-3 victory, holding off St. Pete late. 

RHP Christian O’Kelly (Indian River) matched up against RHP Dalton O’Boyle (St. Pete). Both pitchers worked 3.2 innings, limited by pitch count. O’ Kelly is an athletically built righty. Pitching from an over-the-top slot, he used a sinking fastball, playing at 85-87 mph, to induce ground balls routinely. He creates natural deception in his delivery with some jerky actions. O’Kelly mixed in a slider and curveball. The slider worked at 74 mph with sweeping action, while the curveball had downward action, 72 mph. 

O’Boyle is a physical 6-foot-3, 220-pounds. With a short arm action, he showed a good three-pitch feel early on in the game. His fastball worked at 85-87 mph, flashing natural cut. His curveball/slider combination kept hitters off-balance. The slider has a 10/4 shape at 77-78 mph, the curveball shape varied between 12/6 and 11/5 at 73-74 mph.

Indian River broke the deadlock in the third inning, scoring two runs. Physical 6-foot-5, 225-pound 1B Cole Brutcher picked up his second hit of the day in the inning, an opposite field double that drove a run in. Brucher, a left-handed hitter, showed an advanced approach at the plate. Power hitter, his barrel path works long through the zone, but showed the ability to shorten up effectively. 

St. Pete SS Josue Rangel had a 2-for-3 day with an RBI double and a run scored. At 5-foot-8, 160-pounds, strong lower half, the right-handed hitter showed quick twitch, athletic actions. At the plate, barrel works long and uphill at-times, above-average bat speed.  He fields his position athletically and made accurate throws consistently with a short arm action.