Midway, Ky. – Thus far, the 2016-17 athletic year has been full of history for Midway University athletics and that history will continue this Friday when the first-ever Midway University baseball team takes the field.
"We're obviously excited about starting the program here at Midway and being the first team ever," said head coach, Luther Bramblett. "We're excited about new uniforms and new opportunities and the guys are ready to compete."
Bramblett is entering his first year as the Eagles' head coach after serving 15 years as the head coach at St. Catharine College. On June 1, 2016, St. Catharine College announced it was closing its doors which forced Bramblett to relocate to Midway and start the program from scratch.
Over his 15 years at St. Catharine, Bramblett collected 532 wins to go with 262 loses and one tie for a winning percentage of 67 percent. Bramblett led his team to over 30 wins in 13 of those 15 seasons. He also took his 2015 team to the NAIA Opening Round in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
In his final season at St. Catharine, Bramblett picked up his 500th career victory on February 12, 2016 when his team defeated Freed Hardeman (Tenn.) 8-7.
Even though Bramblett is starting the program from scratch, he will have familiar faces take the field. "We brought over 18 players from St. Catharine which will give us a great nucleus and great base that will enable us to be competitive with the schedule that we are playing."
Six of those 18 players will be seniors who have played at least one year under Bramblett at SCC. Those include: Josh Wenning (Palmyra, Ind.), Derek Jones (Mt. Washington, Ky.), Reid Battles (Denton, Texas), Hector Quinones (Barceloneta, P.R.), Peyton Johnson (Louisville, Ky.) and Jake McCoy (Mesa, Ariz.).
Quinones and McCoy each took home first team All-Mid-South Conference honors last season at St. Catharine. Over their career respective careers at SCC, the trio of Wenning, Battles, and Quinones combined for a .285 batting average, 26 doubles, six triples, seven home runs, 107 runs batted in, 122 runs scored and 56 stolen bases.
On the mound the quartet of Jones, Quinones, Johnson, and McCoy combined for a 10-6 record and a 3.97 earned run average over 124.2 innings pitched. They also racked up 125 strikeouts and 21 saves in 85 total appearances on the bump.
Not only did Bramblett bring over 18 of his players over, but he also brought over some of his coaching staff. Joining Bramblett will be assistant coaches, Jeremy Turpin, Dominique Guevara and Steven Borkowski along with graduate assistants Cody Kollenberg and Daniel Lerma. All of which played under Bramblett at one point in their career.
"Having my coaching staff come with me is a huge plus because those guys obviously know what my expectations are, they're familiar with the way we do things and our system and our approach and they are just an extension of me which is a plus."
Pitching wise, the Eagles have several different pitchers that could fill the role and make their way into the starting rotation. "We fill like we have 6-7 arms that could fulfil that role, but there are a couple that I have yet to see against live competition when it counts," added Bramblett.
The Eagles will have roughly 130 innings of college experience under their belt. Bramblett noted, "We are going to have guys in positions (on the mound) that they haven't been before, that's something we are trying to figure out and the only way to do that is by game experience."
Offensively, coming over from St. Catharine are six players that played varsity innings last year, with three of those six being everyday players. "There is going to be some good competition and it's going to take us a little while to figure out our everyday starters and everyday players and to figure out how our lineup is going to work," said Bramblett.
"I like our position guys, I think we're athletic and most of them can run, I think we can be pretty good defensively, but again, that's what we have to figure out and getting on the field and playing against outside competition will help with that," added Bramblett.
When asked what he expects from his team, Bramblett said, "I expect us to come out and compete, I don't like losing and I think we have a core group of guys that feel the same way, they want to start the program off right and I feel like we can be competitive with everyone on our schedule."
Midway's first-ever baseball team will take the field this Friday down in Mobile, Alabama when they take on the University of Mobile. Mobile will be providing live stats and live video for all four games.
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