Good Luck to the Class of 2017

Turning the page to the next chapter in their careers, this class of 2017 will hopefully earn a chance to make an immediate impact on their new school's programs. New atmosphere, new campus, new program-- this is what they find themselves walking into. Along with finding new friends, new professors, and new challenges over the next four years. 

For Andrew Altamira (Brevard College), Brandon Gragilla (Wake Tech Community College), Pierce Suttles (Western Carolina), and Kyle Bynum (USC Upstate), surely what they look forward to most will be lining up on an all new baseball diamond with all new teammates and their sights set on a common goal of winning a conference championship. All amazing talents individually, at the high school level their senior year, together they compiled a cumulative batting average their senior years of .380, 75 RBI, and 31 doubles. That's enough fire power to keep any high school offense running on all cylinders!

This year, they look to compete for starting positions, and get a better understanding for their team role, and help their teams win. Good luck to the Unmatched Performance college class of 2017!

Kyle Bynum Signs with USC Upstate

The Mallard Creek High School and Unmatched Performance Athletics alumni will be joining the University of South Carolina at Upstate this fall to continue his career in baseball. A great talent and extremely hard worker, Kyle made up his mind after his sophomore year at Mallard Creek that he would begin leaving his mark on Charlotte's I-Meck High School Baseball conference.

That summer he endured an extensive practice regimen that helped him put on 15 pounds of lean muscle, improve his speed which was once above the 7 second mark in the 60-yard dash (a very common method used by college and pro scouts to measure speed), to a more speedy 6.8 seconds. Developing his ability to drive the ball to all fields made it certain that he was well prepared going into his Jr. year.

His Junior year at Mallard Creek was a season to remember, hitting for an average of .411 with 10 doubles, 3 triples, and 25 runs batted in, he was a force in the lineup-- earning himself player of the week honors on a couple of occasions. He went on to have another successful season as a Senior, showing that he could be consistent.

Congratulations Kyle on your many accomplishments but we are certain that there will be more to come at the next level! Follow Kyle this year at the USC Baseball Athletics page.

How to Hit the Curveball

Quite possibly some of the most frequent questions that I hear are about hitting off-speed pitches. With most amateur baseball players below the college ranks, that question is typically about hitting the curveball.

What is a hitter's biggest fear? Not having enough time! Think about it-- it takes a fastball a fraction of a second to make it to home plate; approximately .5 seconds. You basically only have enough time to react to the pitch. Now, with an off-speed pitch like a curveball you can add a couple tenths of a second. As much as baseball players see fastballs, there's no mystery why we have trouble hitting off speed pitches. To the common fan, fractions of a second don't seem like much of a difference because players make it look so easy, but to the player in the batter's box, it is not as easy as it looks. That fraction of a second is the difference between a ball that's hit off the wall and an easy ground ball out.

So now we know what is giving hitters so much trouble. As much as you want to believe its the movement that gives hitters trouble, it actually has more to do with the timing. Throwing off the timing, this is what pitchers call, "keeping a hitter off-balance." So what's the solution to hitting that curveball? WAIT LONGER! Let it get deeper into the strike zone and hitters have a better chance to square the ball up. The best way for me to help my hitters understand this concept is by telling them to not try to hit the ball before it breaks, but after it does. It makes them wait longer and makes their pitch selection better. This helps hitters stop swinging at that ball in the dirt and square up the curveball a lot more often.