Vinnie Pasquantino’s walk-off hit for Kansas City Royals was two years in the making
Kansas City Royals minor-league slugger Vinnie Pasquantino had no way of knowing a built-in scouting report he developed on a pitcher during weeks practicing together during the pandemic shutdown would come in handy in the ninth inning of a spring training game.
Pasquantino, a left-handed hitting first baseman who smashed 24 home runs in the minor leagues last season, lifted the Royals to a 5-4 Cactus League win over the Cincinnati Reds with a pinch-hit walk-off RBI single on Thursday at Surprise Stadium.
Pasquantino’s single came against a “relatively familiar” foe in Reds right-handed pitcher Connor Overton. The two share an alma mater in Old Dominion University, though they weren’t classmates or teammates.
However, they’d shared a field many times before Thursday’s matchup.
“In 2020 we got close,” Pasquantino explained. “I faced him in live at-bats at my high school. So I know about him. I haven’t faced him in a few years now, but we’ve stayed in touch.
“He made his debut last year, which was pretty cool for that group of people that was doing live at-bats. We had about 20 guys out there every Tuesday, and I think four or five of them have made their debut since. He was one of them.”
Overton, a 15th-round draft pick in 2014, made his major-league debut with the Toronto Blue Jays on Aug. 12.
“When I saw him take the mound, I kind of wanted to hit off him because I know [him]. That’s my friend,” Pasquantino said. “It’s always fun to compete against your guys. When I went up there, I honestly thought he was going to throw me a changeup — first pitch — because that’s what he used to do all the time. I was able to keep my hands in and hit the fastball that he threw me. It was really cool being able to face him.”
A 6-foot-4, 245-pound former 11th-round draft pick in 2019, Pasquantino earned his first invitation to big-league spring training this year even though he’s not on the 40-man roster.
Last season, he played for High-A Quad Cities and Double-A Northwest Arkansas. In 116 combined games, he slashed .300/.394/.563 with 24 home runs, 84 RBIs, 37 doubles and as many walks as strikeout (64 each).
When the pandemic shut down spring training and wiped out the minor-league season in 2020, Pasquantino went back home to Virginia working and trying to keep his baseball skills sharp against other professional players. Royals minor-league infielder Nathan Eaton, another Virginia native, also took part in some of those workouts.
Even though Pasquantino and Overton grew up in the same area and went to the same college, they didn’t get to know each until the pandemic when both ended up practicing once a week at Pasquantino’s former high school, James River, in June 2020.
Milwaukee Brewers right-hander Alec Bettinger was also one of the players who trained there and also made his major-league debut last season.
“I was able to really get better during that time because there were such quality arms in the area,” Pasquantino said.
Two or three weeks into it, a few guys were called to their respective major-league teams’ alternate training sites.
Eventually, some college players filtered into the remaining group as guys were called away to alternate sites.
Pasquantino said the group, which nicknamed themselves the “C-team” because they weren’t major league players or alternate site players, even played a couple games against summer collegiate teams.
