A pair of Tennessee baseball players are spending their summer with the USA Collegiate Baseball team following strong freshman years in Knoxville. Both catcher Trent Grindlinger and left-handed pitcher Cam Appenzeller earned invites to the collegiate national team and just completed the first part of their three-part summer circuit.
The USA Collegiate Baseball team played six games in three days against various teams in the Appalachian League with the final two games coming against an Appy League All-Star team. How did Grindlinger and Appenzeller perform in those six contests?
Grindlinger has gotten little playing time, failing to reach base in his lone at-bat which came in a 6-1 win over the Burlington Sock Puppets. Grindlinger did catch one inning from Appenzeller in that game with the left-handed pitcher working a 1-2-3 inning with a strikeout.
Appenzeller made two relief appearances last week, combining for two scoreless innings while allowing no hits, just one walk and striking out a pair of batters.
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There’s two other Tennessee adjacent notes from the first week of the USA Collegiate Baseball summer circuit. Rising sophomore left-handed pitcher Will Haas pitched against the collegiate team while on the Appalachian League Select team and allowed one hit while striking out one batter in a scoreless inning.
Then there’s Cal Baptist shortstop Chris Ramirez who reportedly has committed to Tennessee but has yet to officially announce his decision or sign with the Vols. The rising junior is on the USA Baseball Collegiate team and has combined to hit 1-for-7 with five walks and one strikeout.
The USA Baseball Collegiate team begins its annual Stars vs. Stripes series on Tuesday night. It’s a five-game intrasquad scrimmage that runs through the Fourth of July.
After the series is complete, USA Baseball will field a team and compete in the first annual World Collegiate Baseball Championship in Taiwan from July 11-15. Japan, Chines Tapai and Korea all have teams in the event along with the United States.
