Spartan Baseball Players Fighting For Summer League Titles
8/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
Aug. 5, 2008
SPARTANBURG, S.C. - Four USC Upstate baseball players are looking to wrap up their summers by winning league championships in their respective wood bat collegiate leagues. Junior Brian Dempsey (Montverde, Fla./East Ridge) is the first Spartan who will get a shot at a title, as his Clermont Mavericks will play in the Florida Collegiate Summer League title game on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. at Tropicana Field. Senior Eric Guillen (Thousand Oaks, Calif./Thousand Oaks) and junior Matt Branham (Columbia, S.C./Spring Valley) are helping the Brockport Riverbats of the New York Collegiate League stay in the fight, as the Riverbats enter Tuesday with a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three semifinal series. Junior Jimmy Tanner (Fayetteville, Ga./Starrs Mill) leads his Lehigh Valley Catz into the Alleghany Collegiate Baseball League Divisional Series on Tuesday night, for the first of a three-game set.
Dempsey has appeared in 19 games for the Mavericks (22-14), who face the Belleview Bulldogs in the championship game on Wednesday. The junior has started 18 games in center field, helping the team to a 10-8 record in those games, posting 12 hits, eight runs and four RBIs.
"It's been a blast so far," Dempsey said. "From the beginning of the summer, we've been putting up runs - at one point, we were 15-5. We pretty much knew if we didn't make it to the championship, it was a disappointment. Just knowing each day that you should win every day when you go out to the field, you don't get that feeling on every team that you play on. It's been great."
Guillen has played primarily second base for the Riverbats (27-15), who finished in second place in the West division of the NYCBL. The Spartan senior started at second base on Monday night in the first of the three-game semifinals with Hornell, who finished the year with the best record in the league. Guillen helped the Riverbats to the 3-1 win going 1-for-4 and converting four chances in the field. Guillen has appeared in 27 games this summer, posting 20 hits and scoring 15 times. He has also driven in 15 and posted an impressive .957 fielding percentage.
Branham, a starter for the Spartans, has coasted into the Riverbats' closer role, finishing the year with a 3-1 record and a 2.95 ERA. In 21.1 innings, Branham has saved seven games and struck out 24 while walking just five. As a reliever, Branham has a 1.56 ERA in 17.1 innings of work. He also closed the door on Hornell in the first game of the semifinals, pitching a scoreless ninth for the save in the 3-1 win. Game two of the set is set for 3 p.m. on Tuesday.
Tanner has starred with the Lehigh Valley Catz in the ACBL, helping the team to the regular-season title in the Wolff Division with a 26-12 record. Tanner finished fourth in the league with a .355 batting average, adding 13 runs, a home run and 12 RBIs in 29 games. The junior catcher also gunned down 43 percent of would-be basestealers (12-for-28). The Catz get their three-game set with Kutztown underway on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. If they win the Wolff Division playoff, they will play a one-game championship against the winner of the Kaiser Division.
"It's been a fun summer," Tanner said of his time with Lehigh Valley. "Everyone's played really well together. I'm excited about the playoffs. Hopefully, we play well and finish up like we've been playing all summer."
Senior Phillip Morgan (Campobello, S.C./Spartanburg Methodist) will also head into the playoffs in the Coastal Plain League with his Columbia Blowfish this weekend. The Blowfish open the tournament as the No. 8 seed, facing top-seed Thomasville at 7 p.m. at Capitol City Stadium. Morgan has appeared in 30 games for the Blowfish, posting 14 hits, eight runs and five RBIs. He has gunned down 46 percent of would-be basestealers (10-for-22) behind the dish.
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.
