The Summer Collegiate Baseball League Comment

There is a reason why others and I post about the Southern Collegiate Baseball League in the HS baseball forum. It’s to address something I strongly believe in. North Carolina is one of the leaders in the country in producing quality and quantity of talented baseball players. Most of them go on to further their play in colleges throughout our state. When they attend the colleges, many of them are assigned to play summer ball in leagues all across the country: The Midwest, New England, Virginia, Texas, Canada and some to Alaska.

The players start baseball in September and many don’t finish until August; then turnaround and start all over again. Most parents can’t travel to see their kids play in Thunder Bay, Madison or Vermont….and the players go to those areas because the coaches believe it offers great competition and it does. But guess what, so does the CPL and the SCBL. These are leagues in your hometowns. In fact, last year the Forest City Owls were the #1 team in the nation according to Baseball America, not a team from the Cape, not a team from the Valley, not a team from Northwoods…but right here in NC.

That is my mission: To provide opportunities for great competition for our NC kids without having to send them to East Bugtussel. And the SCBL has carried it one step further. They understand that the players have been working hard all through the college season; many of the players finishing a 60+ game season., and we won’t schedule a 70 game summer season. The SCBL schedules 45 game regular season…and they do this for a reason. We don’t want the players to get hurt due to their bodies being fatigued. We understand the importance of pitch counts. We understand the importance of family. We want the players to have time off with their families and go on vacation before they return to school.

All of those things we believe are important. However, we believe it is very important to identify great baseball players with matching character and invite them to our league; And what better area to identify those players than in NC. We have players from all over the country, but we aggressively seek the NC kids because we want their families to be able to watch them play….and how are we going to be able to accomplish this?

By informing everyone from college coaches to players and their families that there is an aggressive league with outstanding talent that is growing in their backyard. That everything that is offered in East Bugtussel is offered here. You want to watch great competition? Watch Josh Thrailkill pitch to Andrew Rash or Addison Johnson. Watch Tanner Merritt compete against Casey Allison. I could go on and on, but I wish everyone could have seen the Copperheads vs the Asheville Redbirds last night. Many games in a summer league are relaxing. You go and watch and enjoy the action. But very little emotion is invested. But you won’t find that with a Statesville Owls’ game…and you didn’t see that at last night’s Championship game. The place was packed and rockin’. The players were intense and emotional. Many of these guys have never been teammates before and some didn’t even know each other, but that quickly changed. All season and last night, you would have believed they were teammates all of their lives. Every uniform was dirty and all energies were spent…and the talent level was as good as you can find in most other leagues. Last night there were tears shed by the players, the coaches, the owners, the host families and parents. It was sad to see Casey Allison and his teammates compete their butts off and lost. It was exciting to see Tyler Zupcic, Ryan Stetson, Tanner Merritt, Tyler Tewell, etc. dogpiling at the end of the game. It was exciting to see the owner, Jeff Carter, shedding tears after 3 years of being the bridesmaid. This game meant something to everyone…including the league.

As I mentioned, we are growing rapidly in our talent level. The players in this league could have gone to many areas across the country, but many stayed “home” so their families could watch them…and to be able to rest up and still have a summer vacation. Which brings me back to my point. We are working hard in educating the college coaches that you don’t have to send a quality player to Texas….you can send them here where we will all be winners!!!

 

Summer

I enjoy hearing about how former and current h.s. players are doing. It's hard to keep up with everyone. It's funny, I spoke with a Wingate coach this weekend at the Impact W/S and asked how Casey was doing this summer. His coached called him the face of Wingate baseball right now. Pretty good compliment about a kid who deserves it....It's fun to keep up with the players your sons' have played with and against to see how they are doing. After many years, it's hard for my son to play somewhere that he doesn't know a player. Although he found a place this summer....

 

Casey Allison made two diving catches in centerfield that took away potential go ahead runs in two different games during the championship series. But the following description illustrates what kind of player he is.

In the 2nd inning, he was drenched in sweat and dirt from head to toes. At one time I believe his pants may have been white. I kid with his coaches at Wingate about Casey all of the time. I swear he could take a year off, drink beer, gain 50 lbs, grow a beard...put him in the lineup and the young man will hit .400 for the season. He's a natural born baseball hitter!...and surprises you with his speed and grace.

 

It has taken a few days for what happened last Saturday night to sink in. It was a fantastic ball game as were many of the games in the SCBL this past season. The SCBL and the Lake Norman Copperhead team were the perfect fit for my son this Summer, but I spoke with other player's families from opposing teams and many had the same positive comments and experiences. I do not know what next Summer has in store for my son. I do know that if he has any say in the matter, he'll be spending more time on the field at Hopewell High School.

Thanks again to Jeff Carter, Coach Shoe, and Coach Anthony. You guys are the very BEST! To the Copperhead players who allowed us to watch you compete, struggle, persevere, comeback, and finish what you all collectively wanted; thank you for the memories.

 

As an umpire I got to see just about all of the teams play. The SCBL was considerably more competitive than I've seen the last couple of years. I got to see some players that I spent time with on the showcase circuit. Given the fact that there is only 8 teams, you start to build relationships with coaches and players after a while. The quality of baseball that I saw this year was considerably better than in the past. It looks like the league is making a concerted effort to be better top to bottom and that makes for better baseball all around. I would gladly fill out my summer schedule with SCBL. I've worked games in the Shoreland League and other places up in Wisconsin and they can't touch what you see night in and night out down here. Kudos to the owners, coaches, and players for making it a great year.