By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

Several Bahamian baseball prospects have had immediate impacts on their clubs in the opening weeks at the rookie level in Minor League Baseball.

Zion Bannister has been the top performer of the group and hit his second home run over the last five games for the Texas Rangers organisation. In his most recent Arizona Complex League appearance, the 19-year-old outfielder went 1-4 with a home run and two RBI in his ACL Rangers’ 9-7 win over the ACL Royals Gold.

On July 12, Bannister went 2-5 with his first professional home run and five RBI in the ACL Rangers’ 14-12 win over the ACL Indians. Bannister’s two-out, grand slam in the eighth inning provided the go ahead runs for the Rangers in the come from behind win.

In 11 AZL games, Bannister is hitting .261 with 12 hits, two home runs, nine RBI, eight runs, a .776 OPS, .320 OBP and one stolen base.

In the 2019 season, he spent time in the Dominican Summer League with the DSL Rangers 2 and the Texas Rangers Futures where he hit .273 with six hits, one RBI and a .333 OPS.

Also in the ACL, Davonn Mackey of the Oakland Athletics has pushed his batting average to .313 with a 4-12 effort over the last three games.

The 20-year-old outfielder went 2-3 and scored a run against the Indians and followed with identical 1-3 efforts against the Kansas City Royals Blue and Diamondbacks.

In the current version of the Dominican Summer League, Adari Grant hit his first home run of his professional career for the DSL Cardinals Blue in yesterday’s loss to the DSL Rockies.

Playing second base and hitting leadoff, the 17-year-old Grant hit his solo shot in the third inning.

Bahamian players also went head to head in DSL action between the Houston Astros and the Miami Marlins.

Astros outfielder Everette Cooper totalled his fourth hit in six games and reached safely on both games against the Marlins.

In game one 8-5 win for the Marlins, the 18-year old outfielder doubled on a 1-3 afternoon and scored a run. In game two, a 20-5 Marlins win, Cooper followed with an RBI single (1-4).

Cooper has totaled four hits, six runs and two RBI on the season.

Marlins outfielder Andre Arthur singled in his only plate appearance and scored a run in game two. In the season opener, Arthur helped the DSL Marlins to a 10-8 win over the DSL Dodgers Bautista.

The 6’5” 18-year old outfielder was in the lineup as a designated hitter and finished 2-3 with one RBI.

The 2021 DSL season got underway last week for the first time since 2019 after the 2020 season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.