PARKER HOPES HIS PITCHING HELPS LIFT MONARCHS INTO POSTSEASON

One of the top pitching prospects in New Mexico this year is about to see his high school career come to a close.  Mitchell Parker will take this mound Saturday morning.  The question is… how many games does he have left?

“I said it before, Mitchell is a once in a lifetime kind of athlete,” said Manzano baseball coach Tim Campos.

“I would describe myself as aggressive and confident,” said the senior.

Both are good adjectives to describe the senior lefty from Manzano High School.  In 42 innings pitched, Mitchell Parker has 102 strikeouts, including a 20-strikeout performance earlier this month.  Parker describes his year as hit or miss.

“Everything’s been going good, it’s just that instead of starting the games off doing good it’s kind of second, third, fourth, fifth inning is when it starts to kick up and start doing good.”

Parker committed to pitch for Tennessee, but there’s a chance his name will be called this summer in the Major League Baseball draft.

“Going into the summer I’m going to workout and in the end hopefully get called into the draft or end up going to Tennessee, just working to where I want to end up.”

And where does he want to end up?

“In the Major Leagues.”

This weekend the Monarchs play a doubleheader against Sandia.  Manzano needs a win to try and get into the postseason.

“Honestly, I just go into it like any other game, just don’t really try to think too hard on it, yeah we do need to win it to make it into state,” explained Parker.  “You go into t with that in the back of your mind but just try to keep it all clear and ready for the game.”

“He looks forward to Sandia more than any other team,” Campos said.  “He’s grown up with a lot of the kids in the same area.  A lot of the kids that are at Sandia had the chance to come to Manzano or Sandia.  Some of those guys chose Sandia, so he’s got a little chip on his shoulder.”

Campos knows the win to get in scenario facing his team.

“The goal that I preach from day one is just let us get into the tournament.  If we could get in, if we could just get a ticket to the dance, we could be dangerous.”

After this weekend we will know if Parker and the Monarchs will get their shot.  The baseball selection show is Sunday afternoon at 4:30pm on KOB.com.