VALDOSTA — DL Hall is little more than a year removed from carving up prep batters during his senior season at Valdosta High.

Now a member of the Baltimore Orioles organization, he’s doing the same to professionals. On Aug. 2, Hall was named the team’s Minor League Pitcher of the Month for July.

Currently a member of the Delmarva Shorebirds, the Orioles’ Single-A affiliate, Hall recently completed a dominant month in which he started five games, going 2-1 with a 0.67 ERA over 26.2 innings. The Orioles’ 2017 first-round pick allowed just 10 hits on the month, striking out 31 batters and issuing 10 walks.

Hall capped off the month by tossing four scoreless innings in his last outing against the Lakewood BlueClaws on July 31, despite walking four.

It was the 19-year-old’s ability to escape danger that has impressed his coaches and the Orioles’ development team, as Hall has slowly transformed from a player that blew past players with 92-93 mph heat into a more complete pitcher.

“One of the biggest things for (Hall) is as the year has progressed, he’s started to mature as a pitcher, and what I mean by that is his preparation has gotten better,” Shorebirds pitching coach Justin Lord said in an interview with the Baltimore Sun. “His routine has gotten better. He’s more deliberate about what he does now. He’s a young pitcher, he’s going to make mistakes like everybody does. But over this last month, that’s the one thing that has really stood out — his preparation has gotten more deliberate, he’s gotten more specific about what he’s working on.

“His routines have gotten better. He does things with a purpose in a little different way now, and he’s been able to carry that over to a game.”

Hall sports a 2.27 ERA over 75.1 innings this season, and that figure drops to 1.88 in 67 innings spanning 16 starts. He’s striking out 9.7 per nine innings.

With three plus pitches in his repertoire, Hall has learned to deliver his fastball, changeup and curve from the same arm-angle. The adjustment has made it difficult for hitters to sit on what can be an over-powering fastball when an improving changeup could be around the corner.

“It has developed because he’s made it a point in his work in between outings,” Lord said of Hall’s changeup. “He’s made it a point to work on it, and I’m sounding like a broken record using the word deliberate here, but he’s been very deliberate. ‘This is a pitch I’m going to work on.’ He’s throwing it ahead in the count, early in the count, behind in the count, and it’s been a pitch that’s very successful for him. And I think it’ll continue to be. He’s right where I want him to be.”

But Hall’s improvement has come from more than just polishing his pitches. The former Wildcat has also polished his approach to the game, even on nights he may not have his best stuff.

“You learn a lot more about yourself, and something that I’ve been focusing on all year is just trying to trust my stuff more and not giving too much credit,” Hall said. “When you get in situations like that, you need to focus on that. Even when you don’t have your best stuff, you have to really bear down and trust that what you do have can still grind you through those innings you need to throw.”

Derrick Davis is the sports editor at the Valdosta Daily Times.