#4 Starting Pitcher: Zac Blakney
When the New York Mets joined the National League in 1962, they went 40-120. The Toronto Blue Jays went 54-107 in 1977, their inaugural season. The Tampa Bay Devil Rays went 63-99 in 1998. The Colorado Rockies' first season in 1993? 67-95. It seems to be common for expansion teams to struggle in the first year (or, in the Devil Rays' case, the first decade).
The Fauquier Gators were no different. After leaving the Clark Griffith League and joining the Valley League in 2007, the Gators limped to a 10th place finish, ending the season with a 14-30 record.
The poor team record makes Zac Blakney's season all the more remarkable. Blakney, a senior at Montevallo, finished 5-1, 1.78, with a 1.06 WHIP, 3.4 BB/9, 10.0 K/9, and .199 opponent's batting average over nine starts and 55 2/3 innings. One can only wonder what the Gators' record might have been without Zac; he accounted for 36% of his team's victories. His five wins came by scores of 6-4, 3-0, 5-3, 3-0, and 9-2; the Gators were shut out, 3-0, in his only loss. In his other three games started, Fauquier won 3-2, lost 5-3, and lost 1-0. Overall, Zac finished 4th in the league in ERA, 10th in innings pitched, tied for 6th in strikeouts, and 6th in opponent's batting average.
In a different twist (I can think of no other Valley Leaguer who has done this), Zac signed with the Vienna Senators of the Clark Griffith League after the Valley season. He started one game in the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas, and showed the same dominant form the VBL had grown accostumed to: he threw 8 1/3 innings of shutout baseball, giving up 3 hits, 2 walks, and striking out 5 in the Senators' 2-0 win.
As a freshman at Jefferson State Community College in 2005, Zac threw 77 innings, finishing with 87 strikeouts and a 2.79 ERA. He threw a 6-inning no-hitter against Wallace Selma Community College.
As a sophomore at JSCC in 2006, he threw 78 innings, finishing with 75 strikeouts and a 2.53 ERA. He added a second no-hitter to his biography when he no-hit Huntingdon College in a 7-inning game.
At Montevallo last year as a junior, Zac finished 7-3, 4.90, with 68 strikeouts in 93 innings.
Hopefully Zac will build off his Valley experience with an excellent senior year at Montevallo, and end up in pro ball!
(Pictures courtesy of Ronnie Blakney)
I assume Ross Fetterley and Chris Masters are in the top three then?
Posted by:tony mowatt | October 18, 2007 at 09:47 AM