Many would be content with the career jumpstart that’s provided by attending Wharton Business School. For White Sox sixth-round pick Jackson Appel, whose mother and grandfather both played Division I college basketball, it always represented the backup route.
“It’s a strong base I can always fall back on, but the goal was always baseball,” said Appel, who spent four years at Penn before spending his final year of eligibility behind the plate for Texas A&M’s College World Series run. “Happy to run this out as long as I can.”
With 19-year-old starting catcher Ronny Hernandez blowing past any previous precedent for workload this season, the Cannon Ballers have been happy to mix in the relatively veteran presence of the 23-year-old Appel behind the plate.
Albeit with a few minor adjustments.
“We’re changing a little bit with the receiving,” said Appel, who has been through this before. “It’s just different philosophies with how they want catchers set up. A&M, they switched me from what I was doing at Penn. Basically whenever you switch organizations, they’ll usually change something up.”
Appel is a proponent of the one knee down catching stance. He feels it puts him “halfway there” as far as dropping down to block pitches directly below him, and that the situations where his lateral mobility is actually limited on one knee are extreme; where the ball is five feet or more off the plate. He and the White Sox will suffer through those cases in exchange for better framing.
“You’re receiving a lot more than you’re blocking in a game,” Appel said.
As the Cannon Ballers took Game 1 of their best-of-three set with the Charleston RiverDogs Tuesday night in their playoff opener, they enjoyed the work of Appel’s contact and on-base-oriented offensive approach. He went 1-for-2 with a pair of walks, and scored the decisive run in the sixth inning of a 5-4 win when he and fellow 2024 draftee Sam Antonacci traded places with a pair of doubles.
If you count the playoffs, the switch-hitting Appel has walked (nine) more times than he’s struck out (seven) in 54 plate appearances, hitting .279/.426/.419 overall in 13 games at Low-A.
“Every single thing, whether it's front toss, machine work, anything, it’s always trying to swing at strike and take balls,” Appel said. “I like to make contact as much as possible. I don’t necessarily try not to strike out, but swinging at strikes and taking balls is a huge thing we did with [hitting coach Michael] Earley at A&M. Big part of my game.”
Charlotte 6, Jacksonville 2
- Yoán Moncada went 1-for-5 with a double and three strikeouts.
- Tim Elko singled twice, got hit by a pitch and struck out.
- Colson Montgomery's hitting streak ended at seven after going 0-for-4 with three strikeouts.
- Oscar Colás, 2-for-3 with a homer and a walk.
- Jordan Leasure: 1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K
Pensacola 5, Birmingham 3
- Rikuu Nishida went 2-for-3 with a walk.
- Wilfred Veras, 1-for-4 with a double and a strikeout.
- DJ Gladney went 2-for-3.
- Terrell Tatum, 0-for-4.
- Peyton Pallette finally stumbled in relief: 2 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 2 K, 1 WP, 1 HBP, 24 of 37 pitches for strikes.
Kannapolis 5, Charleston 4
- Sam Antonacci went 2-for-5 with a double.
- George Wolkow, 1-for-5 with three strikeouts.
- T.J. McCants doubled twice, singled, walked, struck out and was caught stealing.
- Ronny Hernandez was 2-for-5 with two strikeouts.
- Ryan Burrowes went 1-for-3 with a homer and a sac bunt.
- Tanner McDougal: 4 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 1 HR, 54 of 78 pitches for strikes.
- Aaron Combs: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 0 K, 5 of 9 pitches for strikes.
Notes:
*Kannapolis leads the best-of-3 series 1-0.
