Scouts To Flock To Nate Pearson-Brendon Little Matchup Today

With Division I baseball still a little more than a week away, the scouting world’s attention Wednesday will be focused on State College of Florida JC’s Robert C. Wynn Field in Bradenton, Fla., for a pitching matchup of two potential Top 100 draft picks.

State College lefthander Brendon Little (No. 12 on the Baseball America College Top 100) will face off against Central Florida JC’s Nate Pearson (No. 41 on the College Top 100). And space behind home plate will be scarce.

“From what I heard over 100 scouts will be there,” State College coach Tim Hill said. “We had over 100 scouts for the first weekend (against Chipola (Fla.) JC). And Brendon’s last start there were 60-75.”

A matchup of this caliber would get plenty of scouting attention no matter when it happened, but with Division I baseball still more than a week away and high schools just starting to ramp up, there’s no better place for a crosschecker or scouting director to be on Wednesday.

“It should be a really good atmosphere. You don’t get a matchup like this very often,” Hill said.

Pearson is 1-0, 4.09 in two outings. He has a stellar 18-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio, but he also gave up a pair of home runs in his opener against Palm Beach (Fla.) State and has allowed 12 hits in 11 innings.

Little (1-0, 2.08) has struck out 15 in just 8.2 innings. He was limited to roughly 60 pitches (and three innings) in his opener and 75 pitches and 5.2 innings in his second outing.

“Scouts told me he was up to 96 and was still 93 mph in his last inning. It was good to see him maintain his velocity. We may push him a little bit more (on Wednesday) but we’re going to gradually build him up,” Hill said.