2016 NHSI: Garrett Comes Out On Top In Duel

CARY, N.C.—Florence (Ala.) High head coach Steve Garrett doesn’t try to set his son, Braxton, apart from his teammates. He doesn’t coddle him or get in his ear too often. In fact, he lets the lefthander call his own pitches. Garrett admits he doesn’t always agree with his son’s pitch selection, but he trusts the highly competitive Braxton to figure it out.

That trust was rewarded Wednesday in Florence’s first game of the 2016 National High School Invitational, a hard-fought, extra-inning pitcher’s duel.

Garrett, the No. 35 prospect for this year’s draft, threw a shutout in an eight-inning, 2-0, win against Liberty Christian (Va.) Academy, outdueling righthander Zack Hess (No. 81 prospect), who didn’t allow a hit through the game’s first seven innings before folding in the eighth. With the win, Florence advances to Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Garrett surrendered just four hits, walked one and struck out 11 on 101 pitches. He commanded an 89-91 mph fastball, bumping 93 mph, and used both a low 80s changeup and a 77-80 mph curveball to keep Liberty Christian hitters off balance.

Garrett, knowing he didn’t have great feel for his curveball early, relied on his changeup through the game’s first few innings.

“The beginning of the game, usually my curveball is my pitch. It’s always there. But towards the beginning it wasn’t really there, so I was relying on my changeup, which I’m really happy with,” Garrett said. “The changeup was really there all day, and the fastball obviously, I commanded it pretty well, so I was working a lot of fastball-changeup.”

Eventually, though, Garrett found his curve when he needed it most, in one of the game’s most pivotal moments. After giving up a booming leadoff triple to dead center field off the bat of Richard Delacruz in the fifth inning, Garrett threw three straight curveballs below the zone to first baseman Austin Roach. And Roach swung and missed at all three. Garrett then proceeded to strike out the next batter—again, on a curveball—and forced a weak grounder back to the mound to keep the game scoreless.

“Right there, guy put a great swing on (the triple), and they were pumped up,” Garrett said. “I knew they’d come out aggressive and try to put the ball in play, so I just gave them a little offspeed, and it worked out for me.”

On the other side, Hess was just as dominant for Liberty Christian. Had his team scored in the first seven innings, he would’ve walked off the mound with a no-hitter. Hess struck out 10, walked two and hit two batters in 7 2/3 innings, working his fastball 90-92 and touching 93 while relying on a 79-81 mph breaking ball as his main out pitch.

“I had pretty good movement on my slider,” Hess said. “Fastball was coming out pretty well, started getting a little more consistent with it as the game went on, and it was just one of those days that everything was working for me pretty well.”

Hess finally blinked in the eighth inning, when Florence center fielder Andrew Mitchell broke up the no-hit bid with a sharply hit single to right field. From there, it quickly unraveled. The Liberty Christian first baseman picked up a sacrifice bunt attempt in fair territory instead of allowing it to roll foul, putting two runners on. After a sac bunt advanced both runners, Hess threw a wild pitch in the dirt that allowed Mitchell to race home for the game’s first run.

Liberty Christian scored its second run on a strikeout pitch that got away. Travis Simpson aggressively ran home as the catcher threw to first. That two-run margin proved enough to saddle Hess with a tough-luck loss.

“(In the eighth) I was trying to hold them and continue to do what I was doing all game,” Hess said. “I felt like I was getting more and more consistent as the game went on, started getting a better feel for my arm slot.

“But they’re a good team and it’s got to fall one way or the other, and unfortunately it didn’t fall our way today.”

For Florence coach Steve Garrett, the win was special not only for his team, who he said he thinks is “the biggest underdog” in the tournament, but it was special for him as a father, to see his son respond in the spotlight.

“I don’t tell him that much, and I don’t make him a big deal on our team or anything,” Garrett said, “but I’ll tell him right now that I’m so unbelievably proud of him and just the person he is, the way he carries himself and the way he competes, because he’s one of those guys you get every so often that’s such a competitor that you can’t compare him to anyone else.”