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Rutherford County has undoubtedly produced baseball talent in Gomer Hodge, then Randy Ingle, Todd Coffey, and Ryan Arrowood to name a few. This week, two young men have earned accolades and stamped their name among those who make the county proud of our diamond sport heritage once more.
Former Chase standout, Tyler White was named third team Louisville Slugger Collegiate All-American this season. White, who finished his senior year hitting .363, led the team in homers (16), doubles (27, also second in the nation) and with 66 RBI’s. The third baseball was also named 2013 SoCon player of the year as well.
“The All-American was a great honor for me. I owe all my accolades this year to my coaches, teammates, and family, if it wasn’t for them I would not have been able to make any of this happen,” White said.
“My coaches and family were great at pushing me and helping me out to get to this point in my career. I’ve always believed hitting is contagious and this year we proved that. All of us got going and we all hit. I just happened to be the one who got the award. This year was a great way to go out. Although we come up just a bit short of a regional birth it was a great senior year to win the southern conference and top off a great four years at WCU.”
For now, White waits and looks hopeful that a Major League Baseball team will nab him come draft time.
As for Western Carolina baseball (38-20), they led the NCAA in home runs this season. Unfortunately, they could only win one game in the Southern Conference tourney, dashing White and the Catamounts NCAA tourney hopes. While I understand why the committee choose not to put them in the field due to the conference tourney, it’s certainly hard to overlook winning 26 of their last 34 games of the season.
Also to mention East Carolina junior and former East Rutherford standout Drew Reynolds was tabbed on the list as second team All-American this season as a utility player.
Reynolds, who helped East Rutherford to the 2010 2A state title batted .322 with 13 doubles and accounted for 22 RBI’s this season as a Pirate. However, Reynolds was even more effective on the mound with a 2.92 ERA, (3-2 record), 14 saves and 36 strikeouts on a team that 31-26 this season. Congrats to both Tyler and Drew.
Of the eight ACC teams who made the NCAA baseball tourney, four remain.
Florida State (will host Indiana this weekend) and N.C. State (will likely host Rice next) easily swept their region to no surprise.
Elon, who went on to win the SoCon tourney and take Western Carolina’s place to make regionals at least gave the ACC’s Virginia a fit. Virginia’s pitching beat them twice though (2-0 and then 11-3) and advanced the Cavs to the Super Regionals on a sweep as well. Virginia Will host Mississippi State next.
Despite rolling over opponents and losing just eight regular season games, North Carolina ran into trouble with Florida Atlantic. The two were tied at 8-8 in the 11th on Monday. If UNC (the No.1 national seed) advances, it only gets tougher as they host South Carolina this weekend.
Georgia Tech staved off elimination three times before Vandy had the last laugh.
Clemson (40-21) tourney resume was impressive beating eight teams that are in the field of 64 and five of those teams were among the top ten ranked teams in the nation this season. However, they one just once and choked by losing to Liberty twice.
Granted Clemson has a young team and a not a deep pitching staff, it’s still inexcusable that the folks in Columbia didn’t get the South Carolina-Clemson match up that everyone was anticipating.
The second hottest ACC team behind UNC coming into the postseason, Virginia Tech staved off elimination twice, but fell to Oklahoma in a regional the Hokies hosted. And like Clemson, Miami won just once and was ousted in Lousiville.
Finally, the Atlanta Braves plan to win the National League East is still on track. The best way to do so is by beating the Washington Nationals, which they won a 2-1 weekend series. The Braves have won 13 of their last 18 games and hold a seven game lead in the East. Against the Nationals, they are 7-4 overall so far this season, but 106 games still remain.
