Parnell's story similar to Yankees' Gardner

BALTIMORE — Stop us if you've heard this one before.

High school baseball player from the Carolinas goes virtually unnoticed by colleges.

Winds up backing his way onto a roster with a Lowcountry school.

Has a relatively nice college career and develops into a decent big league prospect.

Now finds himself playing — and contributing — in the major leagues.

Pulls on a uniform every day that says New York across the chest.

Brett Gardner's story, from College of Charleston walk-on to Yankees center fielder, is beginning to make its rounds both locally and nationally.

But Bobby Parnell's tale is still shrouded by obscurity.

Parnell was a high school third baseman just outside Charlotte, in Salisbury, N.C. Now he's a key cog in the New York Mets' bullpen.

A lot of this all came about because then-Charleston Southern coach Gary Murphy liked Parnell's arm.

So much that the school was Parnell's only Division I scholarship offer. Naturally, even if he wasn't so sure what kind of pitcher he was going to be, Parnell accepted.

"Yeah, I mean, I didn't even think of myself as a pitcher back then," he said recently, as the Mets were wrapping up a three-game set at Baltimore's Camden Yards. "I felt like I had a strong arm, like I could do a lot. But I just didn't put it together until college."

At CSU, Parnell worked through control issues to tailor a low-to-mid-90s fastball that he could command. From there, he developed a slider that gave him all he needed to become an effective college pitcher.

Suddenly, a scout or two started showing up to give Parnell a look.

"You hear some scouts and teams are interested," he said, shrugging, "but you never really know."

Well, he knew in 2005, when the Mets took him in the ninth round. Clubs don't use picks in the first 10 rounds unless they think you can hack it in the majors.

Even starting out at the lowest minor league level, the soft-spoken and Southern-twanged Parnell still wasn't entirely sure he belonged. And he for sure wasn't certain about his trajectory toward the big leagues.

"You get to Rookie ball and see these guys who've been there seven or eight years," he said. "That's scary. You think, 'Well, OK. Let's see what I can do for the next couple.'"

Despite those odds against him, he just kept climbing. In Double-A and Triple-A, Parnell developed a changeup that shifted his game into another gear.

With that pitch, he had hitters confused. That's what it's about for a guy who doesn't have extraordinary stuff.

The Mets noticed, bringing up Parnell in September of last year after the rosters expanded.

The first impression is always a key one. How's this for Parnell's debut? On Sept. 15 at Washington, he notched a 1-2-3 eighth inning that required only eight pitches.

"You want to show what you can do and let them know you're not scared and you're going to get the job done, no matter what," Parnell said. "It didn't hurt anything. I've tried to take care of my business and do what I can to help the team. If you do that, you'll be in good graces with anybody. It's not about trying to make an impact; it's about doing your job."

Parnell allowed three runs in his six September appearances, but did enough to show he could make it with the big club.

This year, through Monday, the 24-year-old Parnell had appeared in 39 games — sixth-most in the National League. Twelve of those 39 appearances have resulted in holds for the Mets, who are still in the thick of the National League East race despite a rash of injuries to their stars.

After a strong start, Parnell has trailed off in recent weeks. Seven straight scoreless appearances at the end of May and the beginning of June got his ERA down to 1.96 for the year.

But, after allowing two more runs Monday at Milwaukee, that ERA is up to a season-high 5.22.

Parnell has given up two or more runs in four of his past eight outings. The Mets have slowly backed away from using him in pressure situations, but he's still hanging on with the team.

And that's pretty improbable for the high school third baseman who barely got a sniff from colleges.

"Taking the road I did, it definitely says a lot," Parnell said. "I didn't have anything paved for me, for sure. I just got opportunities and things, here and there, just kept going my way."

Reach Travis Haney at thaney@postandcourier.com.