Video: Top baseball catch of the year?
By Mitch Stephens
Apr 8, 2016, 10:00am
Austin Trace of Canal Winchester High in Ohio reaches out and makes a snag you have to see to believe.
Video: Austin Trace with an insane catch
See the Canal Winchester pitcher make a bare-hand grab that's hard to believe.Austin Trace made it look like he was opening a soda can. With one hand.
The
Canal Winchester (Ohio) junior pitcher stuck out his bare right hand and grabbed a liner back up the box with perhaps the best defensive play of the young baseball season.
The first thing we thought about was San Francisco Giants outfielder Kevin Mitchell with a racing bare hand catch while stumbling and sprinting in foul territory in 1989. Or maybe Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Sean O'Sullivan grabbing a soft liner with his bare hand last year from the pitching mound.
This one was much more instinctual and casual, but nevertheless spectacular.
Trace hit .378 last year for the Indians and came into the year with a career 4.40 ERA. He definitely helped his own cause with this catch.