June 20, 2011
By Jon Cooper
Sting Daily
In keeping up with Georgia Tech’s participation in collegiate summer baseball, Sting Daily checks in with the Sunbelt Baseball League.
Considered one of Georgia’s Premier Collegiate Summer Baseball Leagues, the Sunbelt is a wood-bat league that plays in Metro-Atlanta and has brought together some of the nation’s finest talent since its inception in 2005.
Georgia Tech has five players participating in the 2011 league. Here’s how the Yellow Jackets contingent has fared.
Evan Martin: The junior outfielder/infielder has been a big time spark plug for the Atlanta Crackers. In five games, Martin is hitting a . 368, with a .478 on-base percentage. He has seven hits, including two doubles, has four walks, scored six runs, and driven in another. Martin has hit in four of the five games he’s played, with a pair of multi-hit games and has scored a run in all five games. The Crackers are 3-2, setting the pace in the Central Division.
Mitch Earnest: The freshman catcher got off to a great start in his Sunbelt debut, going 2-for-4 with a run scored for the South Atlanta Bearcats in their 5-3 win over the Home Plate Chukars. Earnest also threw out the only runner who tried to steal on him. The Bearcats are 2-0 early on, leading the West Division.
Cameron Gibson: The incoming freshman outfielder has started slowly at the plate, going 1-for-9 in his first three games for the Home Plate Chukars. But in his last game, against the Douglasville Bulls, the Conyers, Ga., native scored two runs. It wasn’t enough, as the Chukars fell, 12-7. They are 1-4 overall, second in the West.
Colby Wren: The freshman first baseman was 0-for-3 but scored a run in his Sunbelt debut. Wren’s Windward Braves lost, 4-2, to Douglasville. Windward is 0-3 thus far, at the bottom of the Central.
Clay Dalton: The sophomore right-hander has yet to pitch in either of the Berkeley Lake Tides two games. It’s been high-tide thus far for Berkeley Lake, which is 2-0, tops in the East Division.
