Jack Leiter, son of former major-league pitcher Al Leiter, made his highly anticipated professional debut on Saturday night with the Texas Rangers Double-A affiliate, the Frisco RoughRiders.
Leiter, was drafted by the Rangers in the 1st round of the 2021 draft and their # 1 ranked prospect.
The biggest crowd since 2019 showed up to watch Leiter make his professional debut. The crowd was electric and Leiter didn’t disappoint.
Leiter got his first professional strikeout in the top of the 1st and struckout the side in the 2nd.
He threw mostly fastballs but also mixed some sliders and curveballs in there topping out at 97 mph on the fastball.
His final line: 3 IP, 1 R, 1 H, 2 BB, 7 SO
60 pitches/33 strikes
I sat behind home plate on the third bass side and believe he was getting squeezed a little bit. Overall, a very good first impression from Jack Leiter.
At the plate
David Garcia got the scoring started for the RoughRiders in the bottom of the 2nd with a single scoring Josh Stowers making it 1-0 Riders.
Unfortunately, that lead didn’t hold ad the Travelers got that run back in the top of the 3rd after a RBI single by Cade Marlowe.
The RoughRiders used 7 pitchers counting Catcher Jordan Procyshen (1 SV) who earned the save by getting the final out out of the game. He touched up to 51 MPH on the radar. Tai Tiedeman (1-0, 0.00) earned the win.
With this win the RoughRiders move to 2-0 on the young season.
