With more than 20 professional scouts on hand to watch his team take batting practice, Baylor’s Cooper Kinney was locked in and blistering the baseball before Wednesday’s game against McCallie. Several of his shots landed well beyond the fence in right and center, with one banging off a football blocking sled sitting out in the open field.
The left-handed senior’s round of BP was more than an exhibition of power, though – it provided an accurate glimpse of what Kinney has been doing against live pitching this season. In his past nine games, the South Carolina signee is batting .633 (19-for-30) with five home runs, eight doubles and 26 RBIs.
“The kid is on fire. He just keeps hammering the ball,” Baylor coach Greg Elie said. “He is one of the best high school hitters in the country and keeps proving it day in and day out. To watch him get out here and drive for success with all of our guys has been really fun to watch.”
Kinney has caught the radar of many MLB teams and scouts because of his complete makeup as a hitter, which has helped him put together a hitting streak that reached 16 games in Wednesday’s 3-2 win against McCallie.
In Baylor’s sweep of the rival Blue Tornado – the Red Raiders won 8-2 on Tuesday – he showed off his opposite-field power by hitting an RBI double off the top of the left-field fence and homering to left. He drove in five runs in the series, and he also handled the pitching staff well Wednesday while playing catcher to help the Red Raiders improve to 20-3.