The Chargers Made Some Noise at the Annual GCAA Fall Showcase

The Georgia Highlands College Baseball hosted the annual GCAA Fall Showcase for the third consecutive year on Thursday.  All six baseball programs in the GCAA come together for an event that drew an impressive sixty six college coaches and professional scouts to see the best players in the conference show their skills.

The Chargers had the crowd buzzing throughout the event as several players turned in outstanding performances.  The first event of the day was the sixty yard dash, and the Chargers did not disappoint.  Nine Chargers turned in times faster than the standard seven seconds, with sophomore CJ Blackwell setting the standard for the entire league with a blazing time of 6.32 seconds. 

The second event of the day was batting practice, and Highlands put on what sophomore Davis Newman called "a laser show."  Nearly all fifteen Chargers that participated left the yard, with several landing balls on the lacrosse field located more than fifty feet beyond the outfield wall.  After taking a crisp round of infield, the Chargers took the field to play a ten inning modified scrimmage against conference foe Gordon State.  Six Charger pitchers clocked in at 90+ miles per hour on the radar gun, with Chandler Anderson firing an event best 93 mile per hour fastball in his appearance.  Luke Orfi, Clay Wiesen, Caden Shirah, and Colin Livingston were the story on the offensive side of the scrimmage.  Orfi blasted a pair of homeruns in the game and drove in three runs.  Wiesen ripped a two run double and stole a base to help put the Chargers in the driver's seat, and Caden Shirah came off the bench to provide a big sacrifice fly and an RBI single in his only at bats.  Colin Livingston was the hero at the end of the game, blasting a two run, go ahead home run in the ninth inning before hunter Ward came on to slam the door shut.  In total, the Chargers plated 10 runs despite each inning being capped at five hitters.

Skipper Dash O'Neill was pleased with his team's performance.  "I think the boys showed up and did what they needed to do today.  I felt like we ran well, hit a great round of BP, and took a pretty clean infield before the game and then did a nice job of battling through the entire scrimmage.  It was exciting to see these guys finally take the field against someone else, and I think this was an important step forward as we prepare for the spring.  A bunch of coaches reached out about our guys too, and that's really what this thing is all about - helping these young men achieve their goal of making it to the next level."

The Chargers begin a month of scrimmages against four year schools next week when they travel to Shorter University to face the Hawks in an exhibition.  First pitch is at 1PM.