When Dariyan Pendergrass made it to third base, he didn’t intend to steal home.

It never even crossed the Lexington County Blowfish player’s mind as he gave head coach KC Brown his sliding mitt at third base. As fast as he is, he’s never even tried stealing home before. But with a need for a spark, Brown thought he would try to truly test the base running capabilities of his fastest player.

“I actually took the mitt and ran it over to our third base dugout,” Brown recalled of the moment during a June 14 game against the Florence Flamingos. “So the mitt’s in the dugout, he’s chillin’ and then a couple of batters later, I’m like, ‘You know, we could really use a momentum swing here,’ so I was like, ‘Hey DP, you need your mitt?’”

At that moment, Pendergrass was picking up what his coach was putting down.

“I got to third and really wasn’t thinking it,” Pendergrass said. “And then [Brown] came back and said, ‘Do you need your hand mitt to steal home?’ and I was like, ‘Yeah, dude!’ so he grabbed my hand mitt and I put it back on and that was a sign right there that something was up.”

“I ran back to the dugout and kind of nonchalantly got it and kind of handed it to him on the sly while I’m looking around and pointing to the stars and whatnot,” Brown said. “So I told him, ‘Look, if we get to two strikes, take off,’ and you know, his speed just took over.”

Before the Flamingos pitcher even started his wind-up, Pendergrass was halfway to the plate and pulled off something that even the fastest of  base runners wouldn’t even dare to try.

“I read the pitch, I got my lead and kept walking and just took off,” Pemdergrass said. “I think it surprised [the pitcher], I could say, and I just beat the throw in.”

Watching Pendergrass play, it doesn’t take long to notice his dangerous speed and baserunning abilities. In his first game this season, he tagged up from third base on a shallow fly ball to left field. The fly out was hit to such a shallow part of the outfield that most coaches wouldn’t advise their runners to try to tag up and score.

But most coaches don’t have a base runner like Pendergrass.
“I had a little doubt at first,” Brown said. “That was the first time I’ve ever seen him play in person and after that play, I was convinced. I wasn’t sure in the moment but after that, 100% confidence and 100% greenlight.”
Pendergrass is second in the Coastal Plain League in stolen bases with 19 on the season and has only been thrown out twice. Macon’s Antonio Brown leads the league in stolen bases with 21 but has played in five more games than Pendergrass and has had 18 more plate appearances. On a per game basis, Pendergrass is stealing more bases (1.7 to 1.3).

In his last year at Spartanburg Methodist, Pendergrass stole 41 bases and was only thrown out once all year long. His speed on the base paths is something you can’t teach and makes him a dangerous player once he gets on base.
He looks up to some elite base stealers.

His favorite player is Jackie Bradley Jr. of the Kansas City Royals and formerly of the Boston Red Sox. He was a speedy outfielder with great fielding range.
But one of Pendergrass’ favorite players to emulate right now is Phillies shortstop Trea Turner, who has led the league in stolen bases twice and has already racked up 245 swiped bags throughout his career.

“Trea Turner, he’s the guy, man,” Pendergrass said. “He’s just a speed guy and I can watch him run all day and I can take a lot from him.”

Brown definitely sees a little bit of Turner’s game in Pendergrass with the way that he can change a game with his base running.

“Trea Turner is a really good analogy,” Brown said. “And I think that over there, watching it at third base. You know, a leadoff walk is a triple and that’s mind blowing to people. I know the steal is kind of dead in the big leagues and I get it. But when you have speed like that, it changes the game. He’s a walking double, he’s a walking triple and it’s a lot of fun.”

With all of the speed of an Olympic track star, the big initiative is just to get him on base. There are many instances of baseball speedsters who can steal a ton of bases but whose impact is limited because they struggle to hit well enough to utilize their speed.

Like Billy Hamilton, who stole more than 50 bases in a season for four consecutive years but rarely got on base (he had a career on-base percentage of .292).

But after a slow start to the CPL season, Pendergrass is starting to prove he’s more Turner than Hamilton.

This year, Pendergrass hit .348 at Spartanburg Methodist and has hit a whopping .371 with the Blowfish, which places him ninth in the league. After a slow start, he tweaked his swing and has been able to make better contact.

“I started off this season in a little slump but I figured out over time what I needed to do with inside pitches beating me up a little,” Pendergrass said. “Basically, I have tucked in my front elbow and have been getting around on it and getting the barrel to meet the ball out front.”

One of the key people Pendergrass credits with his development is Tim Wallace, his last coach at Spartanburg Methodist.

“He was hard on you and always wanted the best for you,” Pendergrass said. “He’s even mentioned before that if you want something, you gotta go get it. It’s gonna be hard but if you put your head down, the sky’s the limit. So I took a lot from him. He’s led me in the right direction I believe. I can always call him and get advice from him and he’d be all up for it.”

With the improved hitting to go along with his blistering speed, Pendergrass has not only been a weapon for the Blowfish, but he’s earned a scholarship to College of Charleston and will continue his collegiate career there once he’s done with his summer in Lexington County.

“A game changer,” Brown said of his star player. “He can set the tone. You throw him in a leadoff spot and you just let him roll.”