USC Upstate Announces Seven Baseball Signees
6/2/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 2, 2008
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The USC Upstate baseball staff announced the signing of seven student-athletes who will enroll in USC Upstate in the fall of 2008 to compete in baseball on Monday. Among the signees are incoming sophomore Phillip Brannon (Spartanburg, S.C./Spartanburg Methodist College) and freshmen Ryan Fern (Oviedo, Fla./Winter Springs, Fla.), Austin Liput (Oviedo, Fla./Trinity Prep) Jeffrey Medley (Greensboro, N.C./Southeast Guilford), Austin Moyer (Greensboro, N.C./Southeast Guilford), Adam Waters (Huntersville, N.C./Hopewell) and Andrew Wyant (Newton, N.C./Fred T. Foard).
"We are very excited about this group of incoming student-athletes," USC Upstate Recruiting Coordinator and Assistant Coach Russell Triplett said. "We feel we have addressed some of our biggest needs as we enter our second year of Division I play, bringing in a host of athletic position players and a group of tough, hard-throwing pitchers. We certainly feel this a good start to our recruiting effort for the 2009 team and we are in position to still add more student-athletes who can make an impact as we near the start of the 2008-09 school year."
Brannon, a 6-2, 190-pound right-handed pitcher, was a star pitcher in 2007 for Spartanburg Methodist, and comes to Upstate with three years of eligibility remaining. As a freshman, Brannon appeared in 14 games, maintaining a perfect 6-0 record and a 3.00 ERA while helping SMC to a third-place finish at the NJCAA Division I World Series. He walked six and struck out 17 in 30 innings of work. In 2008, Brannon was one of SMC's weekend starters at the beginning of the season, going 2-0 with a 1.88 earned-run average and a complete game in three starts before being shut down with shoulder trouble. During the summer, Brannon pitched with the Spartanburg Stingers of the Coastal Plains League, going 2-3 with a 4.46 ERA in 42.1 innings. He struck out 20 and walked 13. Brannon was a 40th-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2006 draft as a pitcher, even though he was mostly a catcher at Broome High School. Brannon was also a member of the 2005 Broome Class AA State Championship football team.
Fern, a 6-1, 180-pound right-handed pitcher, comes from a powerhouse program in Winter Springs High School, which was ranked as high as ninth in the nation by Baseball America in 2007. Along the way, Fern went 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA on the mound for the Bears en route to a 27-2 overall record and district and conference championships. As a senior in 2008, Fern led the Bears to a 20-7 overall record as a starting right fielder for the team. He hit .297 at the plate with eight doubles, three homers and 19 RBIs. On the hill, Fern was the team's closer, going 1-2 with a 1.91 ERA and five saves. In 22 innings, he struck out 24 and walked 10. Also active in club baseball, Fern played with the Central Florida Black Racers that competed in the 2007 World Wood Bat National Championship.
Liput, a 5-10, 170-pound infielder, was a three-year starter for Trinity Prep, helping take the team to the Florida 3A State Championship Game in 2007. As a senior, he earned the Team MVP award after hitting .342 with 22 runs, eight homers and 19 RBIs in 23 games. The Saints finished the season 16-9 and Liput made just two errors at shortstop during the season. Coached by former Detroit Tiger Chet Lemon during the summer, Liput played shortstop at both the AAU National Championships and the World Wood Bat Championships for Chet Lemon's Juice, helping the team take the crown at both tournaments. He was also named to the TPX Top 90 team in 2007 and was a member of the All-Star team at the 2007 Top Prospect Showcase in Bradenton, Fla. He was also a Pop Warner Second-Team Football All-American as a 12-year-old.
Moyer, a 6-0, 215-pound right-handed pitcher/first baseman, and Medley, a 6-1, 180-pound third baseman/catcher, were both major factors for a Southeast Guilford High School program that made the North Carolina 3A State Finals during their junior year and won a league title during their senior year, as it went 20-3 overall and 13-1 in the league en route to a final ranking of third in the state by ImpactBaseball.com.
Moyer was a participant in the 2006 North Carolina State Games for Region 5, helping that squad to a gold medal before helping the team to a silver medal in 2007. He earned four all-conference selections in his career, thanks to a .421 batting average and 22 homers entering his senior year and a 14-5 mark on the mound, and was an all-area selection as both a sophomore and junior. He also earned the team MVP award as a freshman and sophomore. Also active in summer baseball, Moyer played at both the 2006 Perfect Game Showcase and the 2007 Blue-Grey Classic at Wake Forest.
Medley also has an accomplished resume thanks to his time at Southeast Guilford. In his first three seasons of prep baseball, he hit .438 with eight homers and 37 RBIs. During his junior year, he earned all-conference and honorable mention all-area honors. During summer ball, Medley played for the North Carolina Region 5 Silver Medalists in 2007, attended the University of Arizona Prospect Camp, earning all-star team honors, went to the AAU National Championships in 2005 and played in the Blue-Grey Classic at Wake Forest in 2007.
Waters, a 5-10, 170-pound infielder/right-handed pitcher, led Hopewell High School to a MeCa-7 Conference Co-Championship as a senior and a final ranking of fourth in the ImpactBaseball.com 4A state poll thanks to a 23-5 record. Waters was the ace of the Titans as a senior, going 9-2 and pitching them into the 4A West District Quarterfinals, marking the first time in school history that the Titans ever reached the state districts. He led the Titans to a 16-6 record as a junior, hitting a team-high .477 with two triples and 16 RBIs. He scored 11 runs. Waters was also one of the team's top pitchers, tossing 37 2/3 innings in seven starts. He went 4-0 with a 2.04 ERA, striking out 41. As a sophomore, Waters hit .245 with 15 runs and 15 RBIs in 19 games. He was also one of the team's top pitchers, going 3-1 with two saves and a 2.44 ERA in 28 2/3 innings. He struck out 33 and walked just 15. As a freshman, Waters played in 21 games, hitting .463 with five triples, four homers and 19 RBIs. Also active in summer ball, Waters played with the On Deck O's at the World Wood Bat Championships and helped Region 6 to a gold medal at the 2007 North Carolina State Games.
Wyant, a 6-5, 230-pound right-handed pitcher, was a four-year starter at Fred T. Foard High School, earning all-conference honors as a junior thanks to a fastball that is consistently in the upper 80s and also hit above .300 as a junior at third base. As a senior, Wyant helped lead the Tigers to the Catawba Valley Athletic Conference championship with a 16-8 record. He was a member of the Region 7 team at the North Carolina State Games and also played travel ball with the Charlotte Heat. Wyant was a Junior Marshall and a member of the Spanish and Beta Clubs as well as being a member of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
Upstate, which finished 25-29 overall and 17-16 in the Atlantic Sun, finished over .500 in conference play for the first time since then-USC Spartanburg went 12-6 in the NAIA District Six in 1990. It finished tied for fifth in the conference and would have qualified for the six-team Atlantic Sun Conference Tournament field, but it is still in the first of its four years in the provisionary process in the transition to Division I, making it ineligible for postseason play.
