NC vs. SC: The Border Battle Scoreboard - Part I

 
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PBR of North Carolina and South Carolina came together on Tuesday June 21, 2022 to run the NC/SC Border Battle at Mariam Hayes Stadium on the campus of UNC Charlotte.  The event featured 100 of the top players in the 2023, 2024, and 2025 classes representing each state.

The day started with the position player workout.  Players were able to go through Switft Athletic testing, live BP, and then a defensive workout.  Following the morning session, three games featured players from each state facing off in controlled scrimmages with pitchers throwing live to hitters.

Below we take a look at some of the information gathered during the Border Battle with much more still to come.  You can see the full roster and statistics from the 2022 NC/SC Border Battle by CLICKING HERE.

North Carolina vs. South Carolina - Stat Analysis

The purpose of the NC/SC Border Battle is to showcase some of the top end players from each state for college coaches and pro scouts.  With close to 25 college coaches and pro scouts in attendance this year, the players in attendance had the opportunity to showout for coaches in the stands, as well as all of the coaches that will follow along on PBR in the coming weeks as we continue to break down the players and numbers.  The NC/SC Border Battle also allows the players the opportunity to represent their state in a competitive environment.  Because players are in the midst of their summer season, the game scoreboard may not reflect the actual game on the field.  Innings are rolled after a set number of hitters and innings are controlled to limit some of the stress on pitchers.

With that said, we take a creative way to match up the Battle of the Carolinas.  Today we begin our scoreboard with a look inside some of the statistics kept by PBR Scouts during the workout and on the field.  With each category, we will give either North Carolina or South Carolina the point, eventually leading to a winner in the 2022 NC/SC Border Battle.

You can see all the stat leaders in the State Leaderboard release HERE.

The Sixty Yard Dash

Swift Athletics allows PBR Scouts to evaluate runners in a fair way, using a laser timed start and finish to gather run times and run speeds on each player.  For the purpose of this post we will only be concentrating on the laser timed 60.  More to come later on the additional times and run speeds on the players…

For North Carolina, 4 players broke the 7.00 marker with another 7 players running under the 7.15 time.  The fastest North Carolinian was Ike Schmidly (Myers Park HS, OF, 2023) turning in a quick 6.92 on the laser.  As a group Team North Carolina ran an average sixty time of 7.45.

South Carolina had 12 players run under 7.15, with 5 under the 7.00 marker.  Maddox Floyd (Chapin HS, OF, 2024), a The Citadel recruit, posted the overall fastest time of the day with a 6.66.  Team South Carolina averaged a 7.46 overall.

At the end of the 1st statistical look, Maddox Floyd captured 1 point for Team South Carolina, while Team North Carolina also captured a point for the win in the overall average sixty times.

North Carolina - 1
South Carolina - 1

Positional Velocity and Pop Times

During the defensive workouts, prior to the game play, PBR Scouts were able to record the positional velocity of the position players working through their position and simulating throws they would make in game play.

The catchers were up first, making four throws through to 2B with scouts recording pop times and their velocity out of the crouch.  Team North Carolina captures the point for the average velocity of the catchers by a mere 0.25mph.  The top overall catcher velocity goes to North Carolina as well with Carson Cabbage (2023, Catcher, Hickory Grove Christian) and Ryan Huneycutt (2024, Catcher, Orange HS) each posting advanced arm strength at 81mph.  Two South Carolina backstops recorded catcher velocity’s of 81mph.  They were Cole Bellinger (2024, Catcher, Greer HS ) and Brandon McWhorter (2023, Catcher, Carolina Forest HS).

The catcher pop times were tight as well.  North Carolina’s Tyler White (2023, Catcher, Person HS) edged South Carolina’s Lazaro Santos (2023, Catcher, Legion Collegiate) by 0.01 on the watch.  White led with a 1.96 to Santos’ 1.97.  Overall, we took the average of each state’s catchers top pop times.  In the overall category, South Carolina posted a 2.11 average to North Carolina’s 2.08, giving North Carolina a clean sweep in the category and 4 big points.

North Carolina - 5

South Carolina - 1

The outfielders were up next, and this was another category that was extremely close.  The individual honors were a tie between the two states.  Both Langston Rupert (2024, OF, Hickory Grove Christian, NC) and Logan Struk (2025, OF, Bishop England) posted 90mph arms from their spots in the outfield.

South Carolina edged North Carolina in the overall category.  The South state outfielders posted a collective average of 84.25mph to North Carolina’s 83.80mph.

North Carolina - 5.5
South Carolina - 2.5

The infielders completed the defensive session, making throws from SS across the diamond, or from 1B to 3B.  South Carolina sweeps this category with both Dylan Richardson (2023, 3B, Hammond HS) and Cole Greer (2024, SS, Berkeley HS) each at 90mph across the diamond.  South Carolina’s overall infielder arm velocity averaged at 80.17, edging NC by just over 2mph.

North Carolina - 5.5
South Carolina - 4.5

Offensive Evaluations

Throughout BP, TrackMan is used to gather information on each hitter.  We will dive much further into the TrackMan metrics as we continue to look at the 2022 NC/SC Border Battle.  For this blog, we will concentrate on some of the max scores posted in TrackMan.

The Max Exit Velocity is a number that always stands out and is easy to understand.  North Carolina’s Jake Absher (2023, OF, Hibriten HS)  flirted with the 100mph marker, maxing out at 99.6mph.  South Carolina’s Logan Struk sees him name on the leaderboard again as he posted a win for SC with a 100.2mph blast off the barrel.  

The overall average max exit velocity takes the max exit velocity of each hitter for each state into account.  North Carolina posted an average of 89.57mph.  South Carolina posted 90.16mph to take the category and sweep the max exit velocity points.

The max distance off the bat is tracked by TrackMan as well.  While it may not define a hitter’s true value, it does give you some feedback on power and the ability to create leverage through contact.  

Logan Struk earns his 3rd point for South Carolina, blasting one ball 384’.  North Carolina’s leader was Sawyer Black (2024, OF, Wesleyan Christian Academy) with a knock of 376’.  North Carolina would earn a split on the points, winning the average max distance category.  NC averaged 314.88’ to SC’s 312.56’.

North Carolina - 6.5
South Carolina - 7.5

Max Fastball

Pitchers worked in game settings, facing hitters, while TrackMan tracked each pitch, spitting out a ton of analytics on each arm that threw.  Even with the summer in full swing, there were good arms on site as North Carolina and South Carolina hooked it up.

The fastball velocity is a favorite stat of a lot of people.  It tells just a little of the story of each arm on the bump, but it is where a lot of people begin as they learn about the arms.  The top arm at the event, in terms of top velocity, was North Carolina’s Tyler Goodson (2024, RHP, Maiden HS).  Goodson peaked at 87.6mph, slightly edging South Carolina’s Cole Greer at 87.4mph.  

Overall, South Carolina ran out a bunch of arms working in the mid-80s.  The SC average max fastball came in at 84.34mph, edging NC’s 82.75mph.

North Carolina - 7.5
South Carolina - 8.5

As we continue to dive into all of our metrics we will continue to update this scoreboard, eventually naming a winner of the 2022 NC/SC Border Battle.