AppleSox Add Three Pitchers With Arizona Connections

AppleSox head coach Mitch Darlington signed three pitchers to the 2024 roster on Friday. Garrett Ahern, Carter Seely and Samuel Round are three-right handers joining this summer’s team.

Ahern joins Cannon Peery as the second AppleSox signee from Grand Canyon University. Ahern has a 2.38 ERA with four strikeouts and four walks over 11.1 innings in six appearances as a freshman for the Antelopes.

The Gilbert, Ariz. native graduated from Campo Verde High School after earning first team all-region honors as a junior in 2022 and then second team honors as a senior in 2023. Ahern went 3-1 with a 2.26 ERA, 38 strikeouts and 11 walks over 31 innings in six games last year.  

“Garrett has already seen some innings for them,” Darlington said. “He’s recovering from an arm injury last year and is just getting back into the swing of things this spring. He’ll be wanting to get a lot of innings, wanting to get a lot of time on the mound and get polished up.”

Seely comes to the AppleSox from Central Arizona, where he has recorded a 3.86 ERA with 17 strikeouts and nine walks over 14 innings in 10 games. His best outing out of the bullpen came on March 11 when he hurled three scoreless innings against Western Nebraska. 

The Selah, Wa. native graduated from Selah high school last spring after helping lead the Vikings to the Washington State 2A Tournament semifinals. He will get the opportunity to pitch back home when the AppleSox travel to play the Yakima Valley Pippins June 18-20.

“We expect him to come up here and see a ton of significant innings for us,” Darlington said “This is an important summer for Carter. I know it will be fun for him to pitch in front of his family and friends but also getting some significant innings in the West Coast League will be big for his development.”

Round returns to the AppleSox after thriving as a starter last season. He got the nod in the first game of the postseason after going 2-0 with a 3.66 ERA, 30 strikeouts and 13 walks over 27 innings in seven games (five starts) in the regular season. He struck out a season-high 10 batters against Bellingham July 27 and went at least five innings in four-of-five regular season starts.

The Phoenix native has not pitched yet this season at Gonzaga. He was a Perfect Game Underclass All-American and Top-500 recruit while playing at Pinnacle High School in Arizona. Round was also a Prep Baseball Report Arizona Future Games Participant.

“I think we saw a lot of the highs of Sam last summer,” Darlington said. “Low 90’s fastball with a sharp, devastating slider that became his swing-and-miss pitch. Towards the end of last summer Sam was becoming our main guy, kind of our number one guy. We knew what we were getting every time he started.” 

The 2024 season begins on May 31 as the AppleSox host the Port Angeles Lefties at 6:35 p.m. at Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium. The AppleSox have 31 home games and play until mid-August. Single-game tickets are available for purchase now at applesox.com/schedule with admission as affordable as $8. 

Fans are encouraged to come to Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium on Wednesday, May 1 to cheer on former AppleSox head coach Ed Knaggs as he begins his run from Wenatchee to Corvallis. Knaggs is doing the run next month to raise awareness for youth mental health and will depart from Paul Thomas Sr. Stadium at 8 a.m. Fans interested in donating to be entered for a chance to coach the AppleSox for a game this summer can visit openingdayrun.com