CPL Steamers top summer team

2015 Summer Collegiate Player of the Year: Nick Senzel | 2015 Summer Collegiate All-America Teams

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – With summer collegiate baseball campaigns from coast to coast coming to a close the past few weeks, new legends were born into the archives of some of the country’s most storied amateur leagues.

In the Coastal Plain League, playing out of the Carolinas and Virginia, it was the Edenton Steamers making their mark with a 40-15 regular season record and a first-place finish in the eight-team East Division.

The Steamers then rode that momentum from the regular season into the playoffs, where they went 6-2, and ultimately won the Petitt Cup Championship. It was the third Petitt Cup for Edenton, and their first in 10 years, since returning to one of the nation’s oldest amateur baseball leagues 18 years ago.

Edenton’s strong regular season, which culminated in a league championship, and return to glory has led them to being selected as the 2015 Perfect Game Summer Collegiate Team of the Year.

“We greatly appreciate the attention from Perfect Game,” said Edenton General Manager, Tyler Russell. “It was definitely a good year for us.”

Russell, in his first year as GM for the Steamers, after serving as Assistant GM for a year, was quick to give the credit for his team’s success to the players and coaches.

“We’re fortunate to have great owners and coaches here and they do a great job of getting the best players we can here,” Russell said. “Edenton is a very small town—only about five thousand people. It’s the smallest town in the league and everyone really just rallies around the team. It’s such a great atmosphere. A southern hospitality type of feel, I guess you could say. The players seem to really enjoy it and having a championship year just makes it all the much better.”

Edenton is no stranger to having championship seasons, but it had been a while. Not since 2005 had the Clams hoisted the coveted Petitt Cup. It had come close, however, making the playoffs with solid winning records in each of the last three summers with manager Bryan Hill in the captain’s chair. Under Hill, there was a feeling of resurgence that bringing the Cup back to Edenton was just a matter of time.

“Yeah, it’s been a good couple of years,” Hill said. “There’s always been a good winning tradition here—since like before 2000—so for me when I came in it was just a matter of changing things up a bit to make sure we were keeping up with that.”

Hill, who has been the assistant baseball coach and recruiting coordinator at Chowan University in Murfreesboro, N.C. for the past four years, was talking about recruiting. He pointed that out as a main part of the success the Steamers have had the past couple of seasons.

“I try and look for older guys,” said the manager. “We look for guys who have put up some numbers already, whether that’s a couple years of college or a couple years of good summer ball. We do our research. We don’t want to just go on a whim and get any guys. We want to know a lot about them and what they can bring to the team. That’s paid off for us.”

Russell and Hill, undoubtedly a winning combination in just one season together, will be back for 2016 and are already working on next summer’s team. “Yeah, it never stops, the recruiting,” Hill added. “We’re already thinking ahead and want to keep it going.”

Hill will be looking for players like Chad Sedio, who was just named a First-Team Perfect Game Summer Collegiate All-American second baseman. “Without a doubt, Chad is the type of player everybody wants to get,” the skipper stated. “He is no question, the all-around MVP—should get hitter of the year in the CPL.”

Sedio lit up the offensive categories his first year playing in the Coastal Plain League. The senior from Miami of Ohio led the league in hitting with a .403 batting average and a .769 slugging percentage. His 18 doubles and 16 home runs were also league-highs. The RedHawk finished second in on-base percentage at .465 and was third in the league in runs scored with 47.

The 6-foot-2, 205-pound product from Medina, Ohio was excited about helping bring the Cup back to Edenton.

“It was a tremendous experience,” Sedio commented. “It was different than I expected. The town was very small. But the community really supports the Steamers and it showed when we won it. It’s all about baseball there.”

Sedio was at fall practice last year when his coach said he got a call from Edenton with an invite to play. “I jumped at the chance,” he said. “I didn’t have a lot of options so I’m happy with the way it turned out. It was a great bunch of guys and a great experience playing for Coach Hill. He’s an incredible coach who really just knows how to manage his guys.”

In the second week of the campaign, Sedio’s Edenton teammate, Zach Prendergast, a righthanded pitcher from Seton Hall, took CPL Pitcher of the Week honors and that was just the beginning for the sophomore out of Horsham, Pa.

The 6-foot-2, 200-pound hurler went undefeated off the bump finishing with a 6-0 record, tied for third in wins. He finished first in ERA with a stingy 1.17 carrying a 46-to-9 strikeout-to-walk ratio through 46 innings. Prendergast also kept the other team off the bags allowing a league-second lowest .162 opponent batting average.

“Oh man, he was vital,” Hill said. “Every time he took the ball the guys felt comfortable. They knew they were going to be taken care of on that side of the ball and could relax knowing they only needed to get a couple runs for him—he was that good. We actually scored more runs with him out there, the guys were so relaxed.”

For Edenton to return to the top of the heap in the highly ranked CPL—Perfect Game ranks the summer league as one of the best in the nation—a group of mostly strangers from all over the U.S. with different backgrounds would have to come together and play as a team. Not an easy task, but something that has to happen to achieve success in a condensed 10-week season.

“I actually call it a long season,” Hill explained. “We go as late into the summer as anyone. Guys have been here for weeks, playing hard everyday, and for many of them, school is about to start. It’s a credit to these guys for buying in early and realizing they were on a path to a championship, and sticking with it to the end.”

“They handled themselves like professionals,” he added. “Which is where most of these guys would like to end up. As professional baseball players.”


2015 Perfect Game Summer Collegiate Team of the Year Finalists:

• Ben Elks, West Coast League
• Brazos Valley Bombers, Texas Collegiate League
• Kenosha Kingfish, Northwoods League
• Orleans Firebirds, Cape Cod League