NC vs. SC: The Border Battle Scoreboard - Part II
July 7, 2022
Follow PBR
@PBR_SC | PBR SC Instagram | @PrepBaseballNC | PBR NC Instagram
PBR of North Carolina and South Carolina came together on Tuesday June 21, 2022 to run the NC/SC Border Battle at Mariam Hayes Stadium on the campus of UNC Charlotte. The event featured 100 of the top players in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 classes representing each state.
The day started with the position player workout. Players were able to go through Switft Athletic testing, live BP, and then a defensive workout. Following the morning session, three games featured players from each state facing off in controlled scrimmages with pitchers throwing live to hitters.
Below we take a look at some of the information gathered during the Border Battle with much more still to come. You can see the full roster and statistics from the 2022 NC/SC Border Battle by CLICKING HERE.
North Carolina vs. South Carolina - Stat Analysis Part II
The first stat analysis and comparison saw South Carolina take a slim lead at 8.5 wins to 7.5 wins for North Carolina. You can review all of Part I here.
Part II will dive into some of the metrics posted by TrackMan from the hitters and pitchers at the 2022 Border Battle. Part I of the scoreboard saw South Carolina sweep both Max Exit Velocity points. In the Max Distance category, the two teams split with South Carolina taking the individual hitter’s point and North Carolina taking the overall best Max Distance Average point.
Below we continue to look inside the Border Battle Scoreboard with TrackMan Hitting Metrics.
Average Exit Velocity
While Max Exit Velocity gives us a pretty good idea of pure power, the Average Exit Velocity will tell us which players are on the barrel consistently, with strength.
Through BP, North Carolina’s hitters averaged an overall exit velocity of 80.81mph. Their leading hitter in Average Exit Velocity was Jake Absher (OF, 2023, Hibriten HS) at 92.5mph.
South Carolina countered with Jackson Moore (INF, 2025, Hartsville HS) leading the way at 90.5mph throughout his rounds of BP. The overall average exit velocity for South Carolina was 81.67mph.
North Carolina and South Carolina split the points available for Average Exit Velocity.
North Carolina - 8.5
South Carolina - 9.5
Average Distance of Each Contact
Similar to Average Exit Velocity, the Average Distance of each contact will give us some feel for which hitters have the chance to do damage on the most of their swings. South Carolina combined to average 198.02’ off the bat. North Carolina edges the win in this category with an average distance of 202.87’
Individually Ryan Honeycutt (2024, C, Orange HS) led North Carolina with an average distance of 303’ on the balls that were tracked by TrackMan, in fair territory, during BP. Wyatt Bland (2023, OF, Chapin HS) paced South Carolina but could not match Honeycutt. Bland averaged 299’ per tracked ball in play during BP.
North Carolina takes both points and the lead in the overall standings.
North Carolina - 10.5
South Carolina - 9.5
Effective Velocity
TrackMan will give us a look at stuff and should provide some insight on how pitches play vs hitters. While we were able to look at top fastball velocity in Part I of this series, today we take dive a bit deeper into how the stuff presented to hitters. Effective velocity takes into account the release, velocity, and carry through the zone, giving us a feel for how hitters may see the velocity out of the hand.
With points available for individual and state averages, we start with North Carolina. North Carolina averaged an effective velocity of 79.51mph. The top effective velocity was from Chace Chaplin (2023, INF/RHP, Middle Creek HS) at 84.5mph.
South Carolina splits the points with NC, taking the overall effective fastball velocity with a team average of 80.05mph. Their individual leader was Cole Greer (2025, RHP, Berkeley HS) at 84mph.
North Carolina - 11.5
South Carolina - 10.5
Average Horizontal Movement
Velocity can be a factor in irritating hitters but movement can have just as big of an effect. South Carolina would take the overall team average point with an average of 12.23 inches of movement to North Carolina’s 10.02 inches.
Individually South Carolina would sweep the category with Cole Smith (2025, RHP, Northwestern HS) averaging 19.10 inches of arm side run. North Carolina’s Ethan Plesser (2024, LHP, Cape Fear HS) countered with an equally impressive 18.60 inches of movement.
North Carolina - 11.5
South Carolina - 12.5
Fastball Spin Score
Spin rate is a function of velocity. With most pitchers, as their velocity increases so does their spin rate. The spin score is a quick mathematical formula dividing the average spin rate by the average fastball velocity. The spin score can indicate an ability for the pitch to miss bats in teh strike zone.
This, the final event in Part II, was the closest event scored to date. The two states split the individual Spin Score point, with multiple players from each team posting a top end Spin Score of 28. The team point would go to South Carolina whose group of pitchers edged North Carolina’s staff with a 25.88 spin score, winning by 0.88.
North Carolina - 12
South Carolina - 14
Continue to follow here on PBR for more information and stats from the 2022 NC/SC Border Battle. Part III of the Team Scoreboard will post soon.