FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Southern Collegiate Baseball League Names Postseason Honorees
Huntersville, NC (August 30, 2010) – After winning the Southern Collegiate Baseball League championship this summer, the Lake Norman Copperheads garnered more postseason honors this week as the league announced its most valuable player and pitcher.
In a statement from SCBL Commissioner Bill Capps, the has league selected Copperheads outfielder Tyler Horan (Middleboro, MA) as its MVP and Copperheads left-handed pitcher Will Helms (Charlotte, NC) as the summer’s most valuable pitcher. Lake Norman finished 25-16 (14-6 in divisional play), defeating the Asheville Redbirds in the league’s first championship series under the new divisional playoff format.
Horan, a rising sophomore at Virginia Tech, led the team with a .360 batting average while driving in 27 runs and slugging .436 with eight doubles, a triple and two home runs. He also finished a perfect 16-16 in stolen base attempts. He drove in two runs in Game 1 of the championship series and went 2-4 at the plate in Game 3.
Helms starts his junior campaign at Appalachian State after a 5-0 summer record, sporting a 2.44 ERA in 11 appearances. He held opposing hitters to .236 at the plate while striking out 38 and allowing just eight walks in 51 2-3 innings. He worked 5 2-3 innings at Asheville in Game 2 of the league championship, allowing just four hits and no earned runs.
In addition to Statesville Owls utility man Andrew Rash (Anderson, SC), both Horan and Helms earned spots on the National Alliance of Collegiate Summer Baseball (NACSB) All-Star Team. Officially sanctioned by Major League Baseball, the NACSB comprises eight summer collegiate leagues in the eastern U.S., including the nationally reputed Cape Cod League.
Rash, who will play alongside Horan as a redshirt-sophomore at Virginia Tech next spring, finished at .387 with a team-best 27 RBI’s. He crushed eight doubles and three homers on his way to slugging .570, and he won the SCBL Home Run Derby July 14 in Spartanburg, SC.
Established in 1999, SCBL adopted two divisions of four teams and the new divisional playoff format this season after adding its eighth team, the Statesville Owls.
In a late-season turnaround, the Spartanburg Blue Eagles claimed the top seed in the West Division playoff but were upset by the No. 4 Carolina Chaos in Round 1. Meanwhile, the No. 3 Asheville Redbirds took out a struggling Tennessee Tornado team unable to defend its back-to-back league titles, and then followed with a win over Carolina to claim the West Division title.
Lake Norman, on the other hand, ran away with the top seed, and eventually the title, in the East Division as they defeated the No. 4 Carolina Stingers in Round 1. The No. 3 Morganton Aggies bested the No. 2 Statesville Owls, only to fall to Lake Norman in the division championship. Ultimately, the Copperheads kept running through a back-and-forth championship series with Asheville to claim the Jeffers Cup – the league trophy named for two of the league’s founders, Marilyn and the late Lynn Jeffers – at their home field July 24.
