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Tournaments  | Story  | 9/19/2020

Kernels Championship Scout Notes: Day 1

Perfect Game Staff      Brian Sakowski      Cade Schares     
Photo: Jackson Wentworth (Perfect Game)
A PG/Iowa tradition for many years now, the Kernels Foundation Championship is annually an excellent event, drawing teams from throughout the Midwest. One of those Midwestern teams, the Cangelosi Sparks 2021 Black, got their tournament started in a loud way on Friday afternoon, scoring 15 runs to earn a run rule-shortened win.

Grant Holderfield (2021, Oak Park, Ill.) got the start and before he even threw a pitch, his team had built a 7-0 lead, so Holderfield never had to pitch with any stress, and it showed. He went 3 shutout, scattering a couple hits and a walk while punching out 6. He’s a solidly-built lefthander with a certain degree of polish, at least from this look, adept at moving his whole arsenal around the zone. His fastball touched 89 mph and sat in the 84-88 mph range, hiding the ball well through the back and generating very good angle to the plate from his extended ¾ slot, pounding the edges of the strike zone and showing the ability to work up as well. His slider is thrown in the upper-70’s, tunneled well out of his hand with more HMov than VMov, but there’s still a two-plane pitch there overall; and the changeup plays very well off the fastball with the same release and arm speed, highlighted by good fade. There’s a lot to like as far as the combination of stuff and pitchability here, giving Holderfield a chance to be an immediate impact type of arm at Indiana.
 


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