’24 AMHS Baseball Spotlight

A Look Into This Year’s Diamond Dynasty

Connor Sawall, Sports Editor

March 5, 2024

Baseball is America’s pastime, and while people say the sport is declining; interest is growing exponentially at AMHS. The Magnet baseball program boasts its first JV program in close to a decade showing the progress made from my freshman year. Both teams are coached by AMHS’s Teacher of the Year Andrew Rusciolleli, who is a long-time coach at Academic Magnet. With that being said, here are your 2024 Raptor baseball players.

7th Grade

The new JV team has AMHS’s first-ever middle schooler in Otto Wiggington. Otto is a middle infielder, primarily a second baseman, and also adds great depth at catcher for our JV team. Otto also adds great comedic relief to the team making him a locker room favorite. Otto says he is most excited to play high school ball for the first time. His favorite team bonding moment this year, a common choice amongst all the players I interviewed, is Icee Wednesdays. He says the JV team will go 8-6 this year. Otto currently has the longest mew streak on the team which he constantly displays for us.

9th Grade

Starting with our JV guys, Sam Harris plays all over the infield and is in the pitching rotation. Sam is a gamer who eats, sleeps, and breathes baseball. Bryce Promanee is an outfielder. Turner Severs plays first base and chugs two-liter bottles of Coke. Andrew “Otto GX” Spann is a utility guy and adds great depth. Charlie Pappas is the only lefty on the team and plays first base as well as pitches. Jaxon Chambers is a corner outfielder. Ryan “RF” Fowles plays second base. L RF. When interviewed, RF said he’s most excited about his improvement with any playing time he’ll receive on JV this season. His favorite team bonding moment thus far is Icee Wednesdays and he believes JV will go 14-0 this season. Tripp Bates is an outfielder. Tripp says he’s most excited to develop on JV this season with his teammates. He believes JV will have a “winning record” this season for his record prediction. Liam Rust plays middle infield as well as the outfield. Next is our “Sub-Var” guys who get called up between JV and Varsity. The first guy is Luke “Jerry” Paggi. Paggi plays middle infielder and he pitches. Paggi is most excited to learn new positions on the baseball field while playing under Coach Rush. Luke says

“Coach Rush has been around the game for a very long time and his extensive knowledge of the sport has already helped me develop as a player in a very short time frame.”

He’s also excited to play ball and build chemistry with his new teammates. His favorite bonding moment so far was his first Icee Wednesday (which seems to be a trend), and his record prediction for varsity/JV depends on pitching and lessening fielding errors. When asked about being a part of the new “sub-var” option, Paggi said he is very excited to play for both teams due to being able to be a leader on JV while still getting the extra varsity reps and development. Cole “Poison” Ivey is a jack of all trades but primarily plays middle infield and pitches. Owen “OG/Chicken Little” George plays all over the outfield and pitches. Anson Harrison is the final freshman, playing third base as well as pitching. Seems as if all the sub-var guys have great arms.

Sophomores

Starting with our JV sophomores, we have DJ “Richard” Ray. Ray was a practice-squader last year and is looking for another year of development before hopefully moving up to varsity next year. DJ plays second base and is known as the team’s biggest “party animal.” Maxim Zakharchyk is playing his first year with the team and plays outfield. Paul Simmons is the only “sub-var” sophomore and plays all over the field as well as catcher making him a great utility guy to have. Now for our varsity guys, we have Tyler “Theck/Juicebox” Heckman, who some may argue has the highest potential on the team. Heckman is topping low 80s off the mound and has a lot of pop in his bat for his small frame. Heckman has started his season strong thus far batting .500 with three RBIs, four runs, and his first home run which he hit against Stall on Monday. Tyler plays all over the infield and outfield, pitches, and is the backup catcher making him one of the most versatile athletes Academic Magnet has to offer. Tyler is also going D1 in group snapping with absolute gems like the image pictured to the right. Tyler’s interview is very special as he accidentally called his shot. When asked what he was most excited for he said “I’m gonna hit a bomb. That’s what I’m most excited for.” Later that night he took a hung curveball so far deep that the ball was never found. His favorite memories came from both games against Oceanside last year where he had multi-hit games in both. In my opinion, those games started Theck’s breakout. His record prediction is 16-4. Another guy that tops low-80s off the mound is Charlie “Chuck” Bhat. Bhat, hailing from West Ashley, is one of the more consistent bats and arms on the team. Chuck plays all over the infield and pitches but you’ll typically see him playing second base in the starting lineup. Being the wholesome man he is, Charlie said he is most excited to see the freshmen develop this year. His favorite memories as a Raptor are pre-game Jersey Mike’s runs with the boys and long bus rides home after wins. Chuck says we will go 13-7 this season. Last but not least, Juvon Gilliard is the starting right fielder and adds outstanding pop at the bottom of the lineup setting the top of the lineup well.

Juniors

Starting, we have the freshman killa Max “St.Petersburg” Peters. Max plays first base and right field. Next, we have our Ace, Jose “Chanchulo” Revuelta. Jose has a beautiful four-pitch mix with a curveball that made a batter fall to the ground on a pitch in the strike zone. He also plays corner infield when not pitching. Jose is most excited to “shove” this year with an increase in innings pitched this season. He’s also excited to get the chance for his family to watch him play. He thinks the team will go 10-10. Logan Burns plays outfield and pitches. He throws mid to high 80s on the mound which is almost the highest on the team. Samuel Winston Makepeace Solari is the team’s starting shortstop and has the highest in-game IQ amongst the entire team. He is one of the most consistent gloves the team has to offer. Despite his incredibly tiny frame, the ball jumps off his bat, making him one of the team’s best hitters. Sam is most excited to “catch dubs” this season. Sam seems to have had a very memorable high school baseball experience so far with a long list of favorite memories including becoming the founder of Icee Wednesdays, the come-from-behind win against Porter-Gaud, his first play in the field being a diving stop, hitting a wall ball against Bishop England, and Connor Sawall’s strikeout against Spartanburg Methodist Junior College and former Oceanside player Dylan Dampier. His record prediction is 12-8. Nikos Paraschos is a second baseman. He says he is most excited to get out on the field with his friends and watch fellow teammate Connor Sawall, “work.” He thinks the team will go 20-0 this season.

Seniors

While the seniors make up the smallest portion of the team, one can argue 2/3 of them make up the biggest part of the team. 4th-year senior captain Thomas “Money Arm” Martin is the team’s starting catcher but plays anywhere he is needed. He can pitch and has two pitches, a strike, and a hit-by pitch. He tops low-90s but lord knows where the ball is gonna go. (Beatty and I have suffered damage to our knees with Thomas on the bump. He has the most power on the team hitting three home runs last year. Thomas holds offers from Appalachian State and Wofford but plans to attend Clemson and walk on their baseball team/play club. Thomas is most excited to beat the home run record this season, which trust me, he easily could do. He is also excited about playing against Bishop England and starting our newest Raptor Baseball tradition, playoff mullets! He thinks the team will go 12-8 this season. 4th-year senior captain Beatty Cummings plays centerfield and shortstop, and while he can pitch, we prefer it when he doesn’t. Thomas, the catcher, especially prefers it when he doesn’t. Beatty at 6’4″ has one of the lankiest frames on the team giving him good power and speed. Beatty is most excited for Icee Wednesdays and a playoff run this season. Both Thomas and Beatty’s favorite memory is the Porter-Gaud win from our sophomore year, and while I did not play in that game, I’d have to agree. Imagine being down 8-1 in the top of the third, forced to sit in a dugout for forty-five minutes. It was not fun. That did not stop the Raptors, however. Started by a leadoff walk by Sam Solari, the Raptors went on to shift the momentum by scoring seven unanswered runs by the 7th inning to send the game to extras. In extra innings, the Raptors scored another three runs unanswered against the Cyclones to win the game 11-8. That was the first game the all-black uniforms were worn which started the legend of the “Black Magic” uniforms. Beatty says the team will go 15-5 this season. Finally, we have 4th-year senior Connor “The Closer” Sawall. Sawall plays first base but primarily pitches in the later innings of games thus the nickname “The Closer”. All three seniors have plans in baseball after high school with Beatty and Thomas getting interest from universities while Sawall has a bright future in bookkeeping/keeping stats.

So far your Varsity Raptor Baseball team is 2-0 with a 19-0 win over PSA and a 15-0 win against Stall. Follow the baseball team on Instagram @amhsraptorbaseball and Tik Tok @magnetbaseball. Attached below is this year’s schedule, make sure to come to games and support your favorite Raptor baseball players!!