LEXINGTON, Ky. — After leading the Kentucky baseball program to its first back-to-back 30-win seasons in 12 years, members of the Wildcat baseball team are finding success in summer collegiate baseball leagues. This year finds 20 UK players spending the summer playing in eight different summer collegiate leagues.
Summer collegiate baseball leagues provide college baseball players with an excellent environment to help prepare for the upcoming collegiate season by simulating minor league atmospheres. Players utilize wood bats throughout the summer, forcing them to be more disciplined at the plate.
The Cape Cod League is widely regarded as the best collegiate summer league in the nation, attracting the top college players in the country. Kentucky sent two of its premier players, Collin Cowgill and Scott Green, to the Cape this summer.
Cowgill, a junior outfielder, missed the entire 2007 season with a hand injury. The Lexington, Ky. native, returned to full health at the end of the year but maintained a redshirt season. As a sophomore a year ago, Cowgill, a preseason All-American selection before the 2007 season, helped pace a dangerous UK lineup with a .296 average, 16 home runs, and 61 RBI. A 29th round MLB Draft selection, he enters his second year spending the summer roaming the outfields of the Cape. Cowgill, who was named the best outfield arm in the Southeastern Conference by Baseball America before the 2007 season, has earned the start in centerfield in all five games thus far for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, batting .353 (6-for-17) with two RBI. In his first game since playing in the Cape last summer, Cowgill hit cleanup in the order and batted 2-for-5 with a triple and two RBI.
Green joins Cowgill as a member of the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox, marking his first summer spent in the Cape Cod League. Green, an imposing 6-foot-8, 245-pound right handed pitcher missed the entire 2006 season with Tommy Johns surgery and was limited throughout the 2007 season with lingering health concerns. In 2007, Green appeared in only nine games, hurling 17 2/3 innings and striking out 20. Green?s longest appearance of his 2007 collegiate season came in the last game of the season, as the Louisville, Ky. native tossed 3 1/3 innings, striking out seven Auburn batters. On Sunday for Yarmouth-Dennis, Green made his first start since April 1, 2005. The 15th round MLB Draft pick of the Boston Red Sox worked five innings, allowed only three hits, one earned run, and struck out seven. Green and Cowgill join several other premier players in college baseball on the 5-0 Yarmouth-Dennis club, including Gordon Beckham (Georgia), Sean Ochinko (LSU), first-team All-American Buster Posey (FSU), and Stephen Dodson (Georgia).
Several Wildcats are participating in other summer leagues, as five UK players suit up for Covington in the Valley League, including Tommy Warner, Kevin Bishop, and Colby Brown. Thru 13 games, Bishop a redshirt freshman outfielder, has rocketed two home runs. Warner has started two games and worked in three, totaling 15 2/3 innings, striking out 17 and accumulating a 1.72 ERA. Brown, who worked 9 1/3 innings during his freshman season at UK, has tallied two starts, a 1.12 ERA, and a 1-0 record. In eight innings, Brown has struck out eight, allowed one earned run and five hits.
Clint Tilford, Duran Feguson, and Neiko Johnson are all playing for the New England Collegiate Baseball League, while Keenan Wiley and Brian Suerdick are suiting up for Lima in the Great Lakes league. Among the other summer league players for UK are Tyler Howe (Coastal Plains) and Brian Spear (Northwoods). Freshmen Brock Wright, Michael Seaborn, Bryan Rose, and Marcus Nidiffer are also playing in the New York Collegiate Baseball League.
Another Offensive Force
The Kentucky baseball team completed another stellar season on the diamond, setting several school marks just a year after claiming the first SEC Championship in school history. In the 103-year history of the UK baseball program, no team has ever won more games (78) in a two-year span then the 2006-07 Kentucky baseball teams.
Among the offensive records set for UK during the 2007 season, include the best start to a season (19-0) and the longest winning streak in school history (19). UK also set the school mark for triples (22) and sacrifice flies (35) in a season. For the fourth consecutive year of the John Cohen era, UK set the school record for hit-by pitches with 93. UK?s .320 team batting average finished just one point shy of the school team record of .321, set in 1988. UK?s .437 on-base percentage and 317 base-on balls leads the NCAA?s 293 Division I teams.
Individually, Kentucky had several players etch their names in the UK record books, including first-team All-American catcher Sean Coughlin. Coughlin totaled 73 RBI during the 2007 season, just four shy of the school record of 77 RBI set by 2006 SEC Player of the Year Ryan Strieby. Coughlin finished the year as the SEC RBI leader, despite playing 12 games fewer then the player ranking second on the RBI list, USC All-American first baseman Justin Smoak.
Infielder Brian Spear set the school record for walks in a season, utilizing a patient eye to draw a staggering 53 on the year, good for the second best on-base percentage (.527) in school annals. Shortstop Ryan Wilkes posted two records, including the career (29) and single season (13) sacrifice bunt records. Senior utility player Mike Brown led the team in batting average (.369) and scored the fifth most runs in a season in UK history (68).
Wildcats Finding Success in the Classroom
Success for the Kentucky baseball program is not strictly limited to the diamond, as the Wildcat baseball program enjoyed a highly successful academic spring semester, with 22 student-athletes posting a 3.0 GPA or higher.
?I am very proud of all of the student-athletes and their success this season, both in the classroom and on the diamond,? Kentucky head coach John Cohen said. ?Academic success is important to us and I am extremely proud of each of the student-athletes for exhibiting a special work ethic and drive towards having success in the classroom.?
Kentucky notched 14 players on the Academic All-SEC team, as well as three freshmen on the Freshman Academic All-SEC team. James Paxton, Michael Seaborn, and Clint Tilford made up the UK representatives for the Freshman Academic All-SEC team. Paxton, a native of Ladner, British Columbia, is majoring in Marketing, while Seaborn is an Accounting major. Tilford, a right-handed pitcher who tossed 19 innings for the Wildcats this season, posted a 3.59 GPA in the spring while majoring in undergraduate studies.
?I am extremely proud of these young men to say the least,? UK senior academic counselor Michael Stone said. ?There is just as much emphasis for the student-athletes to succeed on the baseball field as in the classroom. With the hectic schedule that faces them in the spring, the importance that they place on their academics is really a sign of maturity. Coach Cohen places a great deal of emphasis on the players? academic progress and he really wants to see them find a high level of success. Their performance in the classroom today will pay dividends tomorrow with a rewarding career.?
Leading the way for UK, in terms of a cumulative GPA, is junior CoSida ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District selection Andrew Albers. Albers, who started a club-best 15 games this season, has a 3.74 GPA while majoring in Kinesiology. Collin Cowgill and Greg Dombrowski also check in with extremely strong GPA, with Cowgill posting a team-high 3.81 cumulative GPA and Dombrowski following with a 3.50 GPA.
Several Wildcats notched a perfect 4.0 GPA during the spring semester, including juniors Antone DeJesus, Cowgill, and Dombrowski. Cowgill became UK?s first Academic All-America selection in 2006, since future Major Leaguer Andy Green was so honored in 2000.
