NL trio sign to play D-I baseball
LA GRANGE — Before they start their run at a third straight 2A state championship, three senior members of the North Lenoir baseball team made their college decisions official in a signing ceremony on Thursday.
Sthil Sowers signed his national letter of intent to play for East Carolina University, while Brandon Sutton and Andrew Manning will take the field at Appalachian State University.
It was a proud day for North Lenoir coach Jim Montague to see three of his youngsters readying to play at the next level.
“They’re joining a fraternity of 35 other North Lenoir players who have played collegiate baseball,” Montague said. “When they were freshmen three years ago, we talked about this day. Their hard work has paid off for them.”
Sowers, a right-handed pitcher/shortstop, is 23-1 over the past two years, including 13-0 with a 0.75 ERA last year.
“(Sowers) is, in my mind, one of the top pitchers in the state of North Carolina that we saw all year,” ECU coach Billy Godwin said in a statement.
Although he considered UNC-Wilmington, Sowers said ECU is the only place he wanted to play in college.
“It was always where I wanted to go,” Sowers said. “It’s close to home where Mom and Dad can come watch me play. I’ve always wanted to be a Pirate.”
It’s likely Sowers will be selected in the Major League Baseball draft in June. He said it’ll take a whale of an offer to pull him away from Greenville, though.
“The money would have to be there,” Sowers said. “But I’m more likely headed to college.”
Sutton, a speedy outfielder and gritty southpaw pitcher who was 17-1 the past two years, was impressed by how hard Appalachian coach Chris Pollard recruited him.
“When I first started talking to schools, Appalachian wasn’t one of my first choices,” Sutton said. “But I really liked what I saw, especially academically.”
Sutton is excited about leaving the flatlands for the mountains.
“The mountains are beautiful and I’ve never really spent a lot of time up there,” Sutton said. “I had a good time when I went up there.”
Manning, an outfielder, visited ASU without knowing his teammate had already decided to go to Boone.
“Brandon told me when I got back from my visit that he was going there,” Manning said. “That helped me make my decision to go there.”
Although ASU has had some rough seasons of late, Manning said he was encouraged with the direction of the program.
“They’re bringing their program back real well,” Manning said. “When I went up there, I liked what I saw. The coach said he’d give me a chance to play.”
Now that they’ve decided where they will play in 2007-08, they’re ready to focus on the 2007 prep season. After winning titles in 2005 and 2006, they’ll attempt to be only the third baseball team in North Carolina in any classification to win back-to-back-to-back championships.
Only Hickory St. Stephens (1972-74) and East Rutherford (2002-04) have won three state titles.
“After you win two in a row with seven starters coming back and the starting pitchers, of course you think about it,” Sowers said. “We’re just going to go game-by-game, but it’s definitely in the back of our heads.”
Bryan C. Hanks can be reached at (252) 527-3191, Ext. 250, or at bhanks@freedomenc.com. Check out Bryan’s blog at http://bhanks.encblogs.com.
