Hunter Wood, Ben Morrison Named Summer League All Stars
We told you about a month ago about the three WKU baseball players – Ryan Thurston, Leiff Clarkson and Trevor Lowe who are playing in the Prospect League, a collegiate summer baseball league as members of the Champion City Kings. What I honestly didn’t know until this morning, is that there are more Tops’ are playing in summer leagues, but we will round those up on another day. The point of this particular update is to tell you of the pair of Hilltoppers that made their league’s All Star Games, and how they performed.
We will begin by staying in the Prospect League, as Ben Morrison of the Terre Haute Rex (one of 10 Rex players to go) was named to the PL All Star Game in his home stadium in Terre Haute, IN that took place last night, which saw his West Division side fall handily to the East in a 9-2 contest. Morrison, who has taken over as the Rex closer with a 1.35 ERA in 13.1 innings (a team high nine appearances) and three saves. He’s also struck out 16 men on the season while surrendering just eight hits. It was both good and bad in the All Star exhibition, as he pitched the 9th inning for the West and struck out three, but walked one and allowed three hits and allowing the final two runs of the game for the East. Morrison and his first-place squad will next play the Danville Dans on Thursday.
Out west, Hunter Wood was named the starting catcher for the South All Stars in the Texas Collegiate All Star Game after racking up a .298 average through 27 games played with the Acadiana Cane Cutters. In almost eclipsing his .300 average, Wood is killing the ball, recording 28 hits (five extra base hits), has stolen four bases (odd for a catcher) and has driven 11 men across the plate. Wood was one of six Cane Cutters to be honored, and three of them started the ball game. Wood played for a good while for an All Star game, going into the seventh inning and posting a 2-for-3 night offensively with an RBI, but it wasn’t enough, as his South squad fell to the North 7-3. Wood and his Cane Cutters are back in action on Thursday against the same team who’s hosting this year’s ASG, the Brazos Valley Bombers.