Local baseball players excelling at college level

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Local baseball players excelling at college level

Sports

Thursday, 15 April 2010 07:53

By Ken Jackson
Sports Writer
Many high school baseball teams played at spring break tournaments last week in order to see tough competition as preparation for upcoming district tournaments.
Meanwhile, local players in college programs have been thriving against that level of competition.
On April 3, Doug Girdner, a three-year starter at Harmony High and a freshman at the Community College of Baltimore-Catonsville, threw a seven-inning no-hitter in the second game of a doubleheader against Montgomery College.
Girdner threw 91 pitches and faced just two batters over the minimum in a 6-1 victory that moved the righty to 4-0 on the season.
Girdner, who was lucky enough to have his parents Troy, the pitching coach at St. Cloud, and Jeanette, in attendance, said it’s, “probably my first no-hitter, ever.
“I may have thrown one in Little League, but I don’t remember,” he said. “My arm felt good that day. It was just a normal outing and I let my offense go to work. About the fourth inning my mechanics were really on, and by about the fifth inning I started to realize it. At the end, nobody wanted to talk to me.”
Girdner gave up a leadoff walk in the last inning, and that batter scored on a stolen base, ground out and sacrifice fly to break up the shutout.
CCBC entered the week 22-8, thanks to a 17-game winning streak.
Ryan Kiser is both a former and current teammate of Girdner’s. Another former Longhorn, Josh Longbrake, hit his first collegiate home run last weekend for Union (Ky.) College, a grand slam.
B.J. Zimmerman and Alex Burgos were teammates at Osceola, and are now roommates at the State College of Florida-Bradenton (formerly Manatee Community College), and are thriving.
Burgos, a two-time county Player of the Year, is 9-1 with a 1.70 ERA and 75 strikeouts in 53 innings. Zimmerman, playing mostly first base, was hitting a healthy .295 with five home runs and 24 RBI through 33 games.
Another home run that didn’t count may have been the one people are talking most about. In an exhibition against the Pittsburgh Pirates on March 2, Zimmerman went deep off reliever Jeff Sues.
“I’d been getting nothing but fastballs and that’s what I was looking for,” he said. “I led off the inning and it was the first pitch he threw. I’ll certainly remember it for a long time.”
It was a memory that was due for Zimmerman. He signed to play at UCF, but the school fired Coach Jay Bergman shortly after. Zimmerman stayed at the school but spent his freshman year in limbo. He did not play at all, a blessing since he used it as a redshirt year and is still a freshman at SCF.
Poinciana’s Chris Roman is fashioning a solid season in his junior year at Newberry (S.C.) College. He is 13th in all of Division II with 66 strikeouts, and 21st in strikeouts per nine innings (10.93).
Roman, Newberry’s Friday night starter and weekday reliever, said the numbers have something to do with the team’s defense.
“They’ve let us down sometimes, so I try to strike everybody out,” he said. “It’s put more pressure than normal on us.”
The lone former county player on a Division I roster is Poinciana’s Jimmy Moran. After a year at Baltimore-Catonsville, he arrived at the University of South Florida as a sophomore and has become a staple of the Bulls’ bullpen.
The righty has made six appearances, and has not been scored on in the last four. Batters are hitting .192 off of him in eight innings.
Seven other county alums are playing collegiate baseball. St. Cloud’s Braxton Chisholm is at Florida Southern, his third stop. Brothers Colton and Cody Campbell are at the University of West Florida. David Edwards is a junior at James Madison.
Osceola’s Zach Hubbard and Cody Ortega are at Lake-Sumter Community College and the Community College of Rhode Island, respectively. Poinciana’s Gino Sanchez, after two years at Baltimore-Catonsville, is finishing his career at Montreat (N.C.) College.