With hopes of a New England hosted regional likely diminished, the end of the college regular season coincided with prep school playoffs and marked the end of baseball in this area until the summer leagues start. I saw Harvard’s high-powered rotation duo pitch a doubleheader against Yale, followed by Aiven Cabral in his last start against Charleston, and prep arms Thomas White and Maverick Rizy pitch back-to-back in the CNEPSBL semifinals.
RHP Jay Driver, Harvard, #224 | 111 DIGS+
6.0 IP 6 H 3 ER 5 K 2 BB
Driver was lights out this summer becoming a Cape League all-star for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks. He diced up strong lineups with his mid-90s fastball and a plus slider that he throws confidently to both LHHs and RHHs. He hasn’t exactly carried that level of success over into the spring and I was able to see him pitch the second game of Harvard’s doubleheader against Yale. The velocity on his fastball was more low 90s Saturday, mostly 90-92 MPH, but was 92-96 MPH in the summer. He also throws bent over from a lower arm slot which seems to have dropped even more.
Driver has a medium athletic frame and starts his motion with a side step into a leg lift where he tucks his heel before dropping and driving with his backside. As I said, he bends forward and throws from a low release point but his arm slot used to still be ¾ but now is lower more to the side of his body. He finished above the belt and falls off to the first base side of the mound. His sweeper slider is his best pitch thanks to the horizontal movement he can generate from his release point and was 80-84 on Saturday. It’s a plus pitch with a great movement profile and he commands it well armside and glove-side. All five of his strikeouts were with the slider and he generated eight whiffs overall with the pitch. The fastball was 90-92 MPH and touched 93 MPH once and really got hit hard in the first couple of innings. He mixes in a two-seamer as well as the four-seamer but the difference isn’t very distinct. He also mixes in a mid 80’s change-up to LHHs but mainly is a fastball/slider pitcher.
All of Yale’s damage was done in the first two innings with all of their runs and 5 of their 6 hits. Everything was leaking through the infield and they weren’t necessarily barrels but I expected Driver to miss more bats overall. The first five hitters of the game reached base, so the fact that Driver managed to pitch 6 innings shows he was able to turn things around and take control of the game with his slider. Unfortunately, Driver’s stock currently has a down arrow but he is signed to return to Hyannis pre-draft so hopefully he can regain some of the magic from last summer.
Chris Clark, Harvard, 120 DIgs+
5.1 IP 9 H 4 ER 5 K 3 BB
One good thing about Ivy League teams is they usually play doubleheaders to start a series so I was able to catch Clark in back-to-back weeks as he started game one. You can check out my recap of Chris Clark’s start against Columbia here.
This start did not go as well as his last. His fastball has great shape and life at the top of the zone but didn’t induce enough chase and ended up getting stuck in deep counts. The arm-side movement also plays front door to LHHs where he froze batters for called strikes. Clark struggled with command, especially in the early going hitting three batters alongside the three walks. His new cutter this year is far and away his best secondary as his slider consistently caught too much of the plate and he struggled to spot it. His final two batters faced each singled off the slider and gave Yale the lead which they never relinquished. The cutter, on the other hand, has sharper break and more bite glove-side that induces more swing and miss compared to the slider.
RHP Aiven Cabral, Northeastern, 109 digs+
6.0 IP 5 H 0 ER 4 K 0 BB
Cabral has really impressed as a freshman this season and I was finally able to see him pitch in his last start of the regular season. He has pitched his way to the front of the rotation and has consistently helped the Huskies start out their series strong. His velocity is not off the charts but he has only walked nine batters in 72 innings and shows impressive pitchability for only a freshman.
He has a three-pitch mix with a fastball, change-up, and slider. The fastball was high 80’s and touched 90 MPH once, and has a bit of armside movement. The change-up was his go-to secondary to start the game, its velocity blended with the fastball and it ranged from 82-87 MPH. It mimicked the movement profile of the fastball with a bit more tumble, but with similar velocity, it was hard to tell the difference at times. His best secondary was his slider which he slowly built up usage-wise and eventually was throwing to both sides of the plate. It was 75-79 MPH with two-plane movement and he spotted it very well glove-side, living on the outside corner to right-handed hitters. The slider induced 9 whiffs and earned Cabral all four of his strikeouts. Overall he navigates around barrels well and limits the hard contact. He is a strike thrower that keeps his pitch count low and spots his pitches well all around the zone. Cabral won’t be eligible until 2025, so he has time to add velocity even though he is successful with his current stuff.
LHP Thomas White, Andover Academy, #28
When I saw White for the first time, it was admittedly not against the strongest competition, and you can read that write-up here. This time out the setting was drastically different as it was a playoff start against Dexter Southfield, whose strong lineup included catcher and Wake Forest commit, Matt Conte.
White’s velocity was similar to his last start, but he was not able to overpower batters with ease and allowed some loud contact throughout his outing. The fastball started out 92-94 MPH and touched 95 MPH a few times but dropped to 90-91 MPH in his fourth and fifth innings. It seemed to continuously catch too much of the plate and induced six whiffs but also got barreled up a couple of times. His two-plane curveball allowed the most damage as he couldn’t quite bury it glove side and allowed a HR to a LHH which is a matchup he usually dominates. His secondaries followed my initial belief that his change-up is the better pitch. He relied on it more this outing and used it as his out pitch getting great fade to his arm side. It generated five whiffs and if his command was better, it would have generated more. Outside of the extra base hits, White’s command was the biggest issue on Sunday. Despite striking out eight, he walked five and hit another batter, and really hurt himself with all the free baserunners. Overall, for his last start in high school, Saturday was less than ideal for Thomas White, but I don’t think it will necessarily hurt him in the long run. He is still a very projectable and young lefty that should hear his name called on day one of the draft.
RHP Mavrick Rizy, Worcester Academy
The second semifinal game featured the junior Mavrick Rizy pitching for the top-seeded Worcester Academy against Deerfield Academy. He’s a UConn commit with a very projectable frame and featured a two-pitch mix with a fastball and two-plane curveball. He pitches from the stretch and uses a high leg kick where he lifts his leg slowly and wraps it around his body. He stays upright and throws from a 3/4 release slot before landing in line, finishing below the belt and kicking his follow leg through. The curveball was 76-78 MPH, but he only used it to change the pace as he leaned on the fastball. He gets straight backspin on the heater, and it generates plenty of ride. It was a dominant pitch and missed plenty of bats, especially at the top of the zone. His frame allows him to project a velocity increase, but it sat at 90-91 MPH on Saturday and he touched 93 MPH. The fastball showed clear potential to be a plus pitch in the future and Rizy is a big name to keep on the radar going into next year.