‘I FEEL SO YOUNG’
Saunier undecided on future if he gets drafted this summer
COLLIERVILLE – Grayson Saunier is unfazed when he steps on the mound.
As a near-sellout crowd packed into Collierville’s home park, Grayson says he has no issues blocking out the atmosphere.
It was a fan base that eagerly has awaited the Ole Miss signee’s first home start of the season. His parents, Jennifer and Jason, are in the standings behind the home plate netting. In the row in front of them, five radar guns are ready, and more scouts are scattered throughout the complex finally getting a real chance to evaluate him this season.
Monday night was the closest the 6-foot-4 right-handed pitcher has come to a full game all season after a lat strain in January. Still on a strict pitch count, he tossed 80 pitches in 5.1 innings, allowing just one hit and no runs. As he jogged off the mound the crowd let him know just how much they missed their ace.
“I’ve been thinking about this game all year,” said Grayson, who had seven strikeouts in his first home start. “... I love pitching at home.”
He helped Collierville secure a 1-0 win over Houston. More importantly, he showed why he’s headed to the SEC and the No. 144 prospect in the upcoming 2022 MLB Draft.
Grayson never anticipated being a soughtafter prospect. It wasn’t until last summer with the Prospect Development Pipeline, a collaboration of USA Baseball and Major
League Baseball, that he started getting on scouts’ radar.
He was one of 96 players in the program, and the only one from Tennessee, according to his mother.
“That really put him on the map,” Jennifer added.
Grayson nor his parents expected him to take off like he did, especially as a pitcher. Over time, dominating the game on the mound came to him.
His dad, Jason, said that when Grayson was growing up he hated being on the mound, instead preferring the outfield. He didn’t like the challenge of pulling his team out of a jam. But, eventually, he started taking his time on the mound more seriously.
“It was probably 2013 when one of his travel coaches said, ‘I’m not pulling you out, figure it out,’” his dad, Jason, recalled. “And he figured it out. Then he was like, ‘I like this pressure.’”
And his athleticism still shows through. Even when he was pulled out of Monday’s game against Houston, he remained in the lineup as a designated hitter, reaching second on a fielding error late in the game. He’s batting .345 this season with six doubles, nine RBIS and a home run.
As much as he impacts the game at the plate, his arm is what has him in line to get drafted out of high school this summer. According to PBR, his fastball tops out at 90 mph, accompanied by a curveball around 70 mph with 12-6 movement and a high 70s slider.
He has no problem performing in the spotlight now, because that’s what he’s used to. It’s easy for him to block out the outside noise because that’s what is expected. If he does get the call to join an MLB organization this summer, Jennifer said it would be “surreal.”
“It would be a dream come true for Grayson,” she added. “It’s what his No. 1 goal has been since he was a little boy, wearing the helmet backwards, running the bases the wrong way.”
But the Sauniers are focused on finishing out the season and letting the future dictate itself. If that means starting his professional career at 18, they’ll take that route. If it means heading an hour south to Oxford, they’ll be just fine with that too.
“I’ve always wanted to play college
baseball as well,” Grayson said. “They’re definitely two things that I’m thinking about.
“It’s sort of hard to wrap my head around because I feel so young,” he added about playing professional out of high school. “I can’t really put it into
words. It would be pretty cool, something that I’ve been working for and thinking about ever since I started to get good at baseball.”
Reach Wynston Wilcox at wwilcox@gannett.com and on Twitter @wynstonw__.