Hanahan Defeats Summerville, 4-1, In Front Of 14 Major League Baseball Scouts

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Summerville — No doubt, Hanahan (AAA) and Summerville (AAAAA) are deep baseball playoff teams in their respective classifications this season, and 14 major league scouts, including the National Scouting Director for Detroit, were on hand to scout Summerville senior outfielder PJ Morlando and Green Wave senior power pitcher Carson Messina, with both players signed on with South Carolina, when the two teams met on March, 18.

Hanahan improved to 8-2 on the season with a 4-1 win over the host Green Wave. Senior (R-R) Gabe Dotterweich struck-out 12 batters, allowed only one hit and two walks, over his six innings of work. At the plate, Hanahan was led by Landon Gomes who went 2-of-four while Hunter Gomes, sophomore Hudson Sprovero, and junior Joe Furse each added one hit for the winning team.

After the game, first-year Hanahan High varsity head coach Skyler Hunter shared his thoughts, “Gage Dotterweich worked his butt off tonight,” said Coach Hunter. “He had all his pitches working and he was keeping them off-balance. He was going in-an-out. He pitched very well for us.

“We have seven starters back from last season and we feel like we can compete for a state championship this season,” said Coach Hunter. “I give credit to my team. They competed and battled, and they ran Carson’s pitch count up early, with a lot of 3-2 counts early in the game. This situation might have led them to changing pitchers a little sooner than they had hoped.

“In all honesty, with a ton of talent back from last year, our players and coaches know that this team is very good, and we felt like if we just came in here relaxed, and played up to our potential, we could win this game,” said Coach Huntley. “Summerville is a very well-coached and talented team and you don’t have 12 to 14 major league scouts at your game otherwise.

“As long as we stay focused on today, and not get caught looking ahead, this team is capable of competing for a state championship,” said Coach Hunter. “It has to be a total focus on playing one game at the time.”

Coach Hunter also gave credit to Hawk’s pitching coach Bryce Flore, a former HSSR Mr. Baseball who went on to pitch in the big leagues, for calling a great game.   

Summerville’s two hits came from Drew Hayes and pinch hitter Chase Lewis who reached on a hit in the bottom of the 7^th after the Hanahan pitching change. Senior Carson Messina (6-3, 225) was the starting pitcher for Summerville and he worked three innings, striking out four batters, walking four batters, and giving up two hits. After starting the top of the 4^th, with consecutive walks, to Jacob Bunting and Oakley Aguiler, Messina was relieved by Thayer Tavormina who went the distance from that point.

Messina’s fast ball was consistently clocked in the 93-to-95 mph range by the 12  scouts in attendance at the game, including the National Scouting Director for Detroit.  Messina had difficulty pounding the strike zone, and while he throws hard, he will need to get his fastball down a little, and that should come at some point in the season. PJ Morlando, projected in some mock 2024 drafts as a first- round 19^th pick by the Mets was 0-1 with two walks at the plate. Messina was 0-3 at the plate.

Summerville (now 6-4) plated their only run in the first inning. Tyler Thomas reached on a dropped third strike, stole second, and was brought in on a Hayes single.  

Hanahan scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning. Bunting and Aguiler drew consecutive walks to lead-off the inning. Next Hudson Sprovero loaded the bases with an infield hit. The Hawks then laid down a well-executed sac-bunt by Dotterweich to tie the game at 1-1.

The Hawks went ahead for good when Furse bunted in Aguiler to make it 2-1. An infield hit by Landon Gomes brough in Sprovero to make it 3-1. Hanahan added an insurance run in the 6^th inning when Furse walked and advanced to second on a single by Landon Gomes. Gomes scored his team’s final run on an RBI single by Hunter Gomes.

After the game Summerville head coach Thayne Manes, in his first year with the team after head coaching at Carolina Forest team last year, told the HSSR, “If we learned anything tonight, I hope it is that we can become a tougher baseball team after this game,” said Coach Manes. “Hanahan is a really tough and scrappy team and this is how they won the game tonight.

“Carson might not have had his best stuff tonight but he still fought hard and competed and he gave us a chance to win,” said Coach Manes. “I thought we did not compete at the plate. I thought our bats were non-competitive for the most-part. Hats off to Hanahan. Their batters really grinded it our against Carson and Thayer and they believe they could win so many of the 3-2 counts they were involved in.

“I felt like on our side we felt like for some reason we could not grind and win the at-bats  We struck-out 12 times and not a whole lot of approach on those strike-outs. We didn’t put the ball in play enough while they did. They just appeared to be a tougher baseball team than we are at this point of the season. We will work on becoming a tougher team in practice tomorrow.”

Summerville will next host James Island on March, 22, while Hanahan hosts Stratford on March, 20 before travelling to North Charleston on Friday to start region play with a double header.