Lackawanna ace flashing pro potential

May 27—There are some variations to the backstory on how Lackawanna College's dominant ace right-hander wound up here, how one of the most promising prospects in junior college came to be, how the development of a potential Major League Baseball draft pick this summer churned away quietly in the midst of the bustle of Scranton's downtown.

But both end up the same way: With Falcons baseball coach Michael McCarry following Kyle Scott and his father discreetly into a parking lot at a travel baseball complex, hoping to persuade the type of talent he might get a chance to lay eyes on — never mind recruit — once every half decade to play for a junior college program he had never heard of before.

In many ways, that's how Lackawanna's trip to the 2023 NJCAA Division II College World Series that starts with a first-round matchup against Glendale Community College on Saturday at 5 p.m. in Enid, Oklahoma, began.

Sure, a diverse offense with a unique influx of speed to go along with the Falcons' typical top-to-bottom power that has allowed them to average 9.6 runs per game has helped. But with Scott and his unique array of pitches on the mound, Lackawanna becomes one of the most dominant teams in the nation, winners of 10 of the 13 games in which he has started this season on the way to his own 7-2 record.

Opponents are hitting just .188 against him, fighting off fastballs that have routinely sat at or near 97 mph and curveballs and sliders with eye-catching spin rates.

In 66 2/3 innings, Scott has allowed just 48 hits. And, he has struck out 105. Numbers like those earned him a scholarship offer that he accepted to pitch this fall at Division I Kansas State. But it's how he built that stat line that has McCarry thinking there may be even bigger things in his immediate future.

"I've had all 30 (Major League) teams come out and watch him," McCarry said. "We had decision-makers in his last start before the playoffs from five teams — assistant GMs, cross-checkers.

"You don't see some of the guys we've seen at games for players who aren't going to get drafted."

Finding a gem

The prequel to his Lackawanna dominance, again, is told a few ways.

Scott remembers his travel showcase team making a trip from his native Maryland to the Maplezone Sports Institute in Aston, just south of Philadelphia, in the summer following his senior year in 2021. He pitched more than a bit at Manchester Valley High School, and a fastball that topped out somewhere near 88 mph might have made him the best pitcher in his conference, as he recalled. But during that week-long tryout amp at MSI, he said, he exclusively played shortstop, and the man in charge of measuring the throwing velocity for shortstops firing to first was McCarry.

"He saw me throwing the ball across the diamond, and I guess he just liked what he saw," Scott said.

McCarry recalls his first time seeing his future ace a bit differently. It was a travel tournament, the day after those drills from shortstop. Scott was on the mound, and the skies were threatening. As he took his warmup tosses, a hard rain began to drench the area. All the other college coaches there to evaluate ran for cover, even as the game started.

"I watched his first pitch come in and spin like nothing I had ever seen," McCarry raved.

Scott's second pitch sailed past the catcher and hit the home plate umpire in the mask, delaying the game while the arbiter underwent concussion protocol. Scott threw just 13 more pitches before the game got called because of rain, but McCarry had seen enough. He followed Scott and his father to their car, pitching the benefits of Lackawanna College and a plan to develop the youngster all the way.

Scott's days as a shortstop were over.

"In high school, I only had two pitches, just my fastball and my curveball at that time," Scott said. "I didn't have the best talent around me. My senior year, I threw 88 (mph), and around me, that's pretty hard, and kids just didn't see that. So I'd just throw my fastball until there was that one good kid, and I'd throw him a decent curveball.

"When I got to college, I really started to learn my slider and my curveball. Freshman year, I thought my curveball was my best pitch. Now, it's really my curveball and my slider."

That came with strength and conditioning, and growing. That 88-mph fastball velocity rose nearly 10 mph, and the ability to pitch deep into games — Scott lasted at least six innings in six of his final eight starts, including a seven-inning, 13-strikeout domination of Delaware Tech in the East District tournament May 19 — is perhaps something McCarry and his Lackawanna staff can take some credit for over the last few years.

But what makes Scott special, McCarry said, is that spin.

"Those traits," he said, "came born with him."

Watch it turn

He was born with it. But he is only starting to understand it.

After his freshman season last spring at Lackawanna, Scott went back to MSI and worked with pitching coach George Zirkel, hoping to improve the command of his developing offspeed stuff.

What he found changed how he approached pitching.

Collecting data from the slow-motion cameras and Rapsodo machines used by Zirkel, Scott became junior college baseball's poster child for spin rate. McCarry said the spin numbers on Scott's offspeed stuff would have rated in the top 10 among major league pitchers this year. Both spun at over 3,000 revolutions per minute, with the the slider topping out at a whopping 3,300.

At another showcase last summer, he threw a bullpen in front of college and pro scouts, and when someone announced his spin rates and said it was comparable to Mets ace Justin Verlander's, his attention and imagination were firmly captured.

"Growing up in high school, I had heard of that stuff, but never used it," Scott said. "Then I go to MSI and throw my curveball and my slider, and everyone is looking at the iPad, freaking out because my spin rate is, like, really good. And I was thinking, 'I don't even know what that means.'

"I started really looking into it and was like, 'Damn, if I throw that for strikes ...'"

He went from a fastball-dominant pitcher to one looking for reasons to throw those breaking balls more often. And, he became Lackawanna's biggest weapon as it pursues a championship.

Contact the writer:

dcollins@timesshamrock.com;

570-348-9125;

@DonnieCollinsTT;

@PennStateTT

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