Left-handed pitcher pitcher Brandon Williamson has moved up a rung on the minor-league baseball ladder.
The Martin County West graduate has been promoted from the High-A Everett AquaSox to the Class AA Arkansas Travelers.
The announcement was made on the Seattle Mariners’ player development Twitter account.
A second-round draft pick of the Mariners in 2019, Williamson has a 3.19 earned-run average in 31 innings over six starts with Everett this season.
Williamson has struck out 1.9 batters per inning (59 in 31 innings) and 47.6% of the batters he’s faced. Both of those marks are the best among qualified pitchers in the six-team High-A West League. He's allowed only 10 walks.
He's ranked now by MLB.com as the No. 9 prospect in the Mariners’ organization. He has a 1.00 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched) and opponents are hitting just .189 against him.
His best outing was vs. Vancouver on May 29 when he allowed only one run and two hits in seven and one-third innings. He struck out 13 of the 25 batters he faced in that game. He had an immaculate (striking out the side on nine pitches) in the third inning of that contest.
On a side note, an immaculate inning has occurred 95 times in the history of Major League Baseball. The most recent was on June 4 by Michael King of the Yankees vs. the Red Sox.
Williamson also struck out the side in the fourth inning for a stretch of six consecutive strikeouts.
After being drafted by Seattle out of Texas Christian University, Williamson made 10 appearances with the AquaSox in 2019. He had a 2.35 ERA in 15 and one-third innings that season, walking five and fanning 25. He started his college baseball career at NIACC.