Left to right: Clayton, Tanzi, Langston, Moore, Frazier, Henry, McIntyre, Carver, Dowdy, Burke, McDade.
photo by Kevin Burke
Chattanooga Cyclones coach George Koontz has done it again.
Ten of his summer and fall league players have signed Division I college baseball scholarships. Two others will play at Carson-Newman and Cleveland State.
In the last three years, 36 of Koontz's Cyclones have moved on to either D-1 schools or professional baseball.
The 2006 Division I signees:
KYLER BURKE signed with Vanderbilt University. Burke is a left-handed pitcher/outfielder at Ooltewah High School who has played the last two summers with the Cyclones and was their MVP this past summer. Koontz said Burke hit as high as 92 mph on radar guns and was invited to and attended the prestigious Professional East Coast Showcase where professional scouts invite the most promising potential draftees for the upcoming year. Baseball America rates Burke as the 79th player in the nation, making him the highest rated recruit in the state of Tennessee. He is also an all-state linebacker for the Owls' football team.
KYLE CLAYTON signed with D-1 Kennesaw State University of the Atlantic Sun Conference. Clayton is a senior left-handed pitcher at Cleveland High School. He pitched the last two falls and one summer for the Cyclones and was 10-2 over the last two falls and was 5-1 this past fall in 36 innings with a 2.14 ERA.
WILL DOWDY signed the Sunbelt Conference's Arkansas State where he will play for former Chattanooga Lookout and Cincinnati Red Keith Kessinger. He is a senior first baseman/outfielder at McMinn County who has played the last two summers and falls as a Cyclone. He hit .388 with eight doubles and four homers with 26 RBI for the Cyclones this fall.
TYLER HENRY signed with the University of Kentucky. Henry is a senior right-handed pitcher at Red Bank High School. He has pitched the last two summers and falls for the Cyclones. He was 6-1 this fall in 31 innings with 35 strikeouts and a 1.36 ERA for the Cyclones. He hit as high as 93 mph on radar guns this fall, Koontz said.
BLAKE McDADE signed with Sunbelt Conference school MTSU. McDade is a left-handed first baseman/outfielder at Ooltewah High School. He is also an outstanding football player. He played the last two summers with the Cyclones and won the Summer 2005 Best Hitter Award for the Cyclones.
TANNER MOORE signed with Southern Conference school ETSU. Moore is a senior middle infielder at McCallie. He played last summer and fall with the Cyclones and was the fall MVP. He hit .485 with 10 doubles, two triples and three home runs with 29 RBI in the fall.
BART ROARK signed with ETSU. He is a pitcher/corner outfielder at McCallie who played for the Cyclones this past fall although injuries severely limited his playing time. He was on of the city’s leading power hitters this past spring.
MATT TANZI signed with Troy University. He is a senior catcher/first baseman at McMinn County who has played the last three falls and two summers with the Cyclones. He hit .372 this fall with a team leading 30 RBI with 10 doubles and three homers and a .495 on-base percentage.
BLAKE CARVER signed with Auburn University. He is a red-shirt freshman at Walters State Community College where he transferred after an injury filled red-shirt year at the University of Georgia. Carver played two falls and two summers for the Cyclones. As an 18-under Cyclone, Carver was 19-1. Last summer on the Collegiate Cyclones in the Georgia Wooden Bat League, Carver was 4-1 with a 2.65 ERA. Carver was the winning pitcher for the Collegiate Cyclones in the Stan Musial Georiga State Championship clinching win over the Atlanta A’s.
BRANDON LANGSTON signed with ETSU. He is a sophomore right-handed pitcher at Cleveland State who played one fall and three summers with the Cyclones. This past summer he was 5-0 for the Collegiate Cyclones in the Georgia Wooden Bat League with 32 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings and an outstanding 2.27 ERA. Langston was drafted last summer by the Cincinnati Reds as a draft and follow.
In other Cyclones' news, fall 2005 Cyclone right handed-pitcher Wes McIntyre of Soddy Daisy High School has committed to D-II power Carson Newman. Soddy Daisy and Cyclone left- handed pitcher/outfielder Jeremy Frazier has committed to Cleveland State. And 2005 summer and fall Cyclone Ryan Fraser has turned down two D-1 scholarship offers in the early signing period.
(E-mail Stan Crawley at wscrawley@earthlink.net)
McCallie's Bart Roark and Tanner Moore signed during a ceremony at the school. Looking on is Blue Tornado coach Chris Richardson.
photo by McCallie School