A couple of interesting Portland prep notes
Someone asked me if I’d ever seen a pitcher throw a perfect game and I said that I had. Couldn’t quite remember when or where, but somewhere along the line I did. (I know, you’d think a guy would remember something like that but I’ve seen about a million games in my life).
What I had never seen was the same guy throw two of them in the span of two weeks, until last night. In fact, Wilson High School right-hander Stuart Fewel pitched BACK-TO-BACK perfect outings in league games. He’s faced 42 batters in PIL contests this season and retired them all, in order, striking out a total of 19 of them and, obviously, walking or hitting none.
It’s very difficult to throw a perfect game anywhere — but in high school, where even an error can mar such an effort, they’re exceedingly rare.
The PIL is down again this season and the opposition wasn’t top flight. But come on, folks, TWO perfect games? Fewel, who was a first-team all-state choice last season, is a 6-4, 200-pound right-hander with outstanding control, a crackling fastball and a very good curveball.
One scout watching him last Saturday in a non-league, five-inning shutout stint against Tigard was aghast that he was not being heavily recruited by the northwest’s Pac-10 schools. Well, sometimes the PIL kids don’t get a lot of attention.
Speaking of that, has there ever been a local kid headed off to play basketball at UCLA who has gotten less media attention than Grant’s Mike Moser? Yes, there was a story in The Oregonian about him this morning, but I swear, when you look back to the Kevin Loves and Richard Washingtons of the world, Moser has flown under the radar.
Good luck in the Nike Hoop Summit, Mike.
High-school sports | Dwight Jaynes | April 10, 2009
Dwight Jaynes, Grant High School, Mike Moser, preps, Stuart Fewel, Wilson High School
Not to take anything away from him, but did you see that the team he just beat–Lincoln, I think–is 0-11 on the season? Not exactly like beating the Yankees.
OK, I guess that is taking something away from him.
I think part of the problem is that his fastball topped out at 88 miles an hour and he is right handed. Living in the mid-80s with his fastball just does not get the scouts all excited. Also this is the first year of the 35 player roster so there are not as many spots as in the past.
Riles — when a high school kid who isn’t even physically mature yet hits 88 on the gun, the scouts are plenty excited… they know he’ll add a few more mph before he’s done growing. The pro scouts are very aware of him — he’s had guns on him all season. It’s the college scouts who haven’t caught on yet. And if you look at the number of walks that staff at OSU has accumulated, you’d probably figure the Beavers could put up with 88 if the guy could put it where he wanted to, which this kid does.
– Dwight
Benschon-I have a business partner who was less than impressed with these perfect games due to what he cited as the PIL’s weak league. Ironically, he and I both pitched for Wilson in the late 70′s. I asked him how many perfect games either of us pitched from little league on, or even no-hitters, let alone two back to back. None is the answer, and we were both pretty decent pitchers. I don’t care if you’re playing the Lincoln freshman softball team, you still have to have perfect control, perfect defense, and you have to blow people away…two games in a row. 99+% of pitchers from little league to the pros never throw a perfect game. Two back to back? Come on!