FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

East Topples West in SCBL All-Star Game, 4-2 

SPARTANBURG, SC (July 15, 2010) – In a close contest reminiscent of the recent Major League version, Southern Collegiate Baseball League saw the East Division defeat the West Division in their All-Star Game, 4-2, Wednesday at Wofford College.

After professional tryouts early in the afternoon, the league’s 16 top sluggers competed in the Home Run Derby, with two representatives from each division’s four teams.

In Round 1, three of the eight East competitors advanced: Andrew Rash (Anderson, SC) of the Statesville Owls, Tyler Horan (Middleboro, MA) of the Lake Norman Copperheads and the Morganton Aggies’ Keith Whitman (Elkin, NC).  For the West, Spartanburg Blue Eagles Jesse Dunn (Easley, SC) and Zac McCarthy (Lyman, SC) moved into the finals on their home field alongside the Carolina Chaos’ Kyle Bowers (White Bluff, TN.), who hit two to take the lead after one round.

Bowers, however, lost his groove in Round 2, eliminated without another homer.  McCarthy, Dunn and Whitman bowed out with one each and Horan belted two, while Rash knocked three out of the park for the come-from-behind win.  Rash has three regular-season home runs, eight doubles and a league-best 26 RBIs.

East and West clashed again in the main event, starting at 7:15 p.m., with Lake Norman’s Adam Curtis (Arden, NC) taking the hill for the East against Spartanburg’s Ryan Traylor (Duncan, SC) for the West.

East touched up Traylor for three earned runs on five hits in just 1-3 inning, jumping to a lead they’d never relinquish.  Lake Norman’s Ryan Stetson (Charlotte. NC), who came in with 25 RBIs and 16 extra-base hits, including five home runs, drove in the first run on a fielder’s choice in the first.  Rash then came back to haunt the West again as he doubled home Stetson and scored on an RBI single by Whitman, who finished 2-3 with a double.

Statesville’s Justin Roland (Salisbury, NC) went 2-4 with a walk and two runs in East’s lead-off spot, scoring again in the seventh on a wild pitch by Tennessee reliever Riley Bevill (Boise, ID), who gave up a hit and a walk with a strikeout.

Only one West representative mustered a multiple-hit day, Spartanburg’s Josh Pless (Boiling Springs, NC), who drove in Tennessee’s Carlos Santana (Santo Domingo, DR) in the fifth off Carolina Stinger Jeff Howell (Kings Mountain, NC.).  Santana was 1-3 with a walk and scored both West runs, coming around on a single by Asheville’s Chris Allen (Murphy, NC) in the seventh against the Owls’ Brennan Daniels (Statesville, NC).

Curtis got the win for East while Traylor shouldered the loss for West.  Just as one Copperhead started the game, another finished it for East, as Brantley Hattrich (Matthews, NC) picked up the save with a perfect ninth, recording two strikeouts.

SCBL regular-season action wraps up this weekend, with divisional playoffs starting Monday.  Sanctioned by Major League Baseball, as a member of the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball (NACSB), the league ranges from northeast Tennessee through the Piedmont of North Carolina to the upstate of South Carolina.

Last year’s returning teams are the Lake Norman (NC) Copperheads, Morganton (NC) Aggies, Carolina Stingers (Fort Mill, SC), Asheville (NC) Redbirds, Spartanburg (SC) Blue Eagles, Carolina Chaos (Clemson, SC), and the two-time-defending-champion Tennessee Tornado (Johnson City, TN).  In 2010, the league added its eighth member, the Statesville Owls, and adopted a new divisional structure.

Each team plays every other team six times during the 42-game season in June and July.  Each team gets home-field advantage for three of the six meetings, playing one nine-inning game and a doubleheader of two seven-inning games at each venue.  Divisional playoffs, which start Monday, pit the first- and fourth-place teams, and second- and third-place teams, against each other, with home-field advantage for the better seed.  Winners face off for the division title, and the East and West champions play a three-game league championship series starting next Thursday, with Games 1 and 3 (if necessary) at the better seed’s home field.

For more information on player rosters and statistics, schedules and results, and links to individual team sites, please visit: www.scbl.org. 

Contact:

Brad MacKeith, Marketing Director

Southern Collegiate Baseball League

Telephone: 704.799.2200

E-mail: Brad@scblbaseball.org

###