Howland’s Scott returns home with Ironbirds

July 5, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

Howland grad

returns home

with Ironbirds

NILES

Playing at Eastwood Field is nothing new for Tanner Scott.

The home of the Mahoning Valley Scrappers also served as Tanner’s home field during his senior season at Howland High School.

“I have a lot of great memories of playing here, as a high school kid it was a thrill to play in a professional park,” said the 2012 Howland graduate.

On Saturday, Scott returned to his high school stomping grounds, this time as a professional player. Scott is a pitcher for the Aberdeen Ironbirds, who kicked off a three-game series against the Scrappers with a 4-3 win.

Scott, is a hard-throwing lefty. He attended Notre Dame College, where he played in 2013. In 2014 he attended Howard University, a junior college in Texas. Scott was primed to accept a scholarship to Texas Tech last spring when he was selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the sixth round of the June draft.

“It was a dream come true. It was something I always hoped for and strived to accomplish, but then again that’s the dream of every kid who plays the game,” Scott said. “Even though there were times I knew I was fighting the odds, I kept plugging away and I always believed in myself.”

Scott possesses a fastball that is regularly clocked at 98 mph, a far cry from the 70 mph he threw midway through his high school career. In fact, he struggled just to make the Howland roster during the early stages of his high school career.

Scott’s current stature (6-foot-2, 220 pounds) is a far cry from the 5-foot-8, 140-pound frame he had as a freshman at Howland. As his body and his game experience grew, so too did his confidence.

“When [former Howland coach and Cleveland Indians pitcher] Jason Stanford came in and started working with me, things really took off,” Scott said. “Once things began to fall into place, the progress was pretty strong and rapid.”

Scott spent last season in the Gulf Coast Rookie League. This season with the Ironbirds, he has appeared in four games, all in relief. He is 2-0 with a 4.22 ERA. He has 13 strikeouts in 10 2/3 innings pitched.

Scott worked three innings Friday, and didn’t appear in Saturday’s game. He hopes to get a chance to perform either today or Monday in front of family and friends.

“It’s cool to be back,” Scott said. “It’s kind of strange to think that I’m back at where I played my high school games, only now as a pro.

“I just hope to keep pushing forward, building my game, and progressing through the ranks.”

SCRAPPERS FALL AGAIN AT HOME

The Scrappers (5-10) fell to 1-5 at home this year thanks to an eighth-inning rally by the Ironbirds.

Mahoning Valley scored a run in the third courtesy of a balk. The Scrappers added a pair of runs in the fifth thanks to RBI hits by Ka’ai Tom and Emmanuel Tapia. However, their 3-2 lead was erased in the eighth when Aberdeen loaded the bases on a double, a hit batsman and a walk, then scored a pair of runs on back-to-back hits by Ricardo Andujar and Cedric Mullins.

Tom and Connor Marabell each collected three hits for the Scrappers, who pounded out 12 hits but stranded nine runners.