Harry Grove Stadium, the home of the Frederick Keys, is just a stone’s throw away from Middletown, Md., maybe 10 miles at the most.
For years, the Keys were the local minor league team to residents of Middletown, including Luke Pryor. Now a rising senior starting pitcher at Mount St. Mary’s University, Pryor grew up going to Keys games and saw the future stars of the Baltimore Orioles come through.
“When I was around 8 or 9 years old, I was part of the Junior Keys Club and I went to the Keys summer camp,” Pryor said. “I’m an Orioles fan too, so I grew up watching guys that ended up being some of my favorite players on the Orioles.”
Following the 2020 season, the Keys were dropped as the High-A affiliate of the Orioles. The partnership spanned 30-plus years.
However, the Keys weren’t completely thrown into the wind. MLB incorporated them and five other teams into the draft league, an MLB-sponsored collegiate summer baseball league based in the Northeast.
Thanks to a good word put in through Mikey Lee, a coach he had played for during a previous summer, Pryor was able to secure an invite to play for the Keys this summer and has relished the opportunity.
Now, Pryor is playing on the same field that once was home to Manny Machado, Nick Markakis, Matt Wieters and more.
“It’s been really surreal using the same facilities, playing on the same field, being in the same dugout, stepping on the same mound as a lot of those really famous guys,” Pryor said.
During his three years playing at the Mount, Pryor has transitioned from reliever to starter. As a junior this spring, the 6-foot-3, 205-pound righty showed some flashes. His best outing of the year came in a complete game against Wagner in April. He struck out six and gave up one run and six hits in a 7-1 win.
Pryor struggled toward the end of the season for the Mount, but he has worked with Keys pitching coach Dennis Rasmussen this summer on his pitching mechanics.
“He has worked hard on his delivery so it becomes repeatable and an ongoing process,” Rasmussen said. “Each outing, either a start or relief appearance, has had some improvements by facing better hitters than he did at the Mount.”
The level of competition that Pryor has faced in the Draft League thus far, a collection of college players from major Division I programs across the country, has been a much higher caliber than what he’s seen in the Northeast Conference (NEC).
That has brought out the best in him and it’s showed in his statistics thus far. Pryor has appeared in six games this season and started three, giving up seven earned runs and striking out 15 in 17.1 innings pitched.
His 3.63 ERA is a great improvement from his performances with the Mount. Summer college baseball is the time for players to get better, and Pryor has definitely taken that to heart.
“The main thing at the beginning of the summer is that I was trying to sit into my back hip more,” Pryor said. “You want to get down the mound while being able to stay on your back side as much as you can. I got away from that at the Mount. All of my momentum was pushing forward too much, so I’ve really been working on sitting on my hip.”
The experience for him has been more than just being exposed to better competition, getting more looks from pro scouts and retooling his pitching mechanics.
Pryor is taking everything in about being part of the Keys organization. The chance to pitch at Harry Grove Stadium and interact with fans young and old has been invaluable. Rasmussen has seen that firsthand in the month and a half that has gone by thus far.
“Luke was great with the kids in the Keys’ three-day youth baseball camp and was a guest on our radio broadcast having fun sharing his outgoing personality,” Rasmussen said.
As for his baseball future, it’s all up in the air right now. Pryor is draft-eligible but hasn’t received as many looks from MLB scouts as he would have liked. Going back to the Mount for his senior year is still very much an option. After the success he’s accrued in Frederick thus far, his future prospects are looking good.
Mount St. Mary’s is leaving the NEC for the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference this year, meaning the level of competition Pryor sees will include the likes of teams such as Marist, Canisius, Rider and more.
Pryor is excited about the jump in competition. If he does return for his senior year, he’s going to have a lot of momentum on his side.
“I’m expecting a lot of big things, a lot of good things,” Pryor said. “I’ve had three coaches in the last three years, which isn’t ideal, but it’s taught me how to persevere and handle adversity. The coaching staff has done really good things to get good players down in Emmitsburg. No one knows us in the MAAC, so I think we’re going to have a good season.”
The Mount went 14-34 last season and 7-20 in conference play, but a breath of new air in a new conference might be just what the program needs to turn things around for the better.
Pryor just might be part of that first big wave in this new era of Mount St. Mary’s baseball, one he hopes includes a return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2008.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Frederick Keys