In his first outing as an independent leaguer, Tanner Scheppers was unhittable. In his second outing, the indy leaguers hit back. Scheppers allowed five runs on five hits, walking two and striking out five in four innings of work in an exhibition game as St. Paul rallied to beat Winnipeg 7-5.

Scheppers is pitching in St. Paul after a shoulder injury cut his 2008 season at Fresno State short. He was still drafted by the Pirates in the second round, but Scheppers and the club couldn’t reach an aggreement on a deal before the Aug. 15 signing deadline. Scheppers signed with the Saints to get game action in front of scouts in the leadup to June’s draft.

He showed the same mid-90s velocity on his fastball that he did in his first outing, but Scheppers struggled with his command on Sunday. He struggled to locate his fastball, which left him behind in counts, and he had even more difficulty locating his curveball and slider. While it didn’t result in as many walks (he walked four in four innings in his first outing), it did result in him getting into hittable counts.

"Of the hits, the majority were ground ball hits. He’s keeping the ball down in the zone. They did hit a couple hard, but in his case as hard as he throws, if guys are on time the ball will travel a bit," Saints pitching coach Jason Verdugo said.  "His mechanics were smooth. He wasn’t laboring at all."

Scheppers will make his first official start of the season on Saturday night (May 16) at Sioux Falls.