Hendricken’s Brandyn Durand commits to Kentucky baseball
WARWICK, R.I. — Hendricken has been a powerhouse for many years when it comes to baseball in Rhode Island. Although they have only had three players make it to the professional ranks, their program is notorious throughout the state and has even gained recognition from neighboring states as they’ve expanded their schedule in recent years, allowing their ball players to face-off against schools from Massachusetts and Connecticut on occasion.
Currently, they have seven seniors who have committed to play Division I baseball. Most notably would be Brandyn Durand, a 6-foot-3, 230-pound catcher who will be playing for the Wildcats of Kentucky in the spring of 2023.
After an impressive junior season, which resulted in Durand winning Rhode Island baseball’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 2021, he went on to a Perfect Game showcase at which he put his talents on full display. In the five major categories for which a catcher is graded (60-yard dash, 10-yard splits, outfield velocity, catcher velocity and pop time) Durand was above his class average in all five. Most impressive would be his catcher velocity which was clocked at 82 mph, as the class average was 71 mph.
Durand’s head coach, Ed Holloway, has been coaching Hendricken’s boys varsity baseball for 22 seasons and had this to say about his star catcher.
“Brandyn Durand is the best baseball athlete at Hendricken since Rocco Baldelli in 2000 (whom Holloway also coached),” Holloway said. “He is a five-tool player and I expect him to be drafted after his senior year.”
High praise from a man who has coached countless prospects that have gone through that program.
With his senior season looming, Durand looks to build on his impressive junior season where he finished, in 15 regular season games, with a .463 batting average, three homeruns, 20 RBI and an OPS of 1.406. His defensive skills as a catcher are what set him apart from the rest of the pack as his 1.98 pop time is in the 74th percentile among his peers. With that being said, nearly batting .500 with an OPS above 1.000 is going to have Nick Mingione, his soon-to-be coach at Kentucky, excited to work with such a raw talent.
At the Prep Baseball Report (PBR) games back in August of 2019 in Georgia, Mingione was able to see Durand play and speak with him after the showcase. As reported by Greg Sullivan of The Herald News, Durand relayed some of what he and Mingione’s conversation entailed.
“He loved my style of play and attitude,” Durand said. “He decided he was going to take an interest in me.”
Evidently that interest was mutual as the Hendricken senior verbally committed to Lexington, Kentucky in November of 2021.
Hendricken’s baseball season will kick off in May of 2022 and Durand will have another 15-game regular season schedule to prove why he was 2021’s Rhode Island baseball’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
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