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
• Terre Haute Rex, Prospect League
Previous Perfect Game Summer Collegiate Teams of the Year:
2006: Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (Cape Cod)
2007: Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox (Cape Cod)
2008: Santa Barbara Foresters (California)
2009: Forest City Owls (Coastal Plain)
2010: Eau Claire Express (Northwoods)
2011: Bethesda Big Train (Cal Ripken)
2012: Newport Gulls (New England)
2013: Brazos Valley Bombers (Texas)
2014: Lakeshore Chinooks (Northwoods)