Alumni Notebook: Former UA All-Americans Showing Successes This Week In Slate of Games
This week’s slate of games around the country showed off the successes of former Under Armour All-America players at the Major League level.
On Wednesday night, the Mets lineup had quite the Under Armour All-American flavor with Zack Wheeler (2008) at the forefront, earning his 11th win of the season. In eight innings pitched, he struck out seven without allowing a run, and Zack also did it with the bat going 2-for-3 with two runs scored. He was aided by a two-run homer from Dominic Smith (2012), his fourth of the year and hits from Brandon Nimmo (2010) and Tomas Nido (2011) – all Under Armour All-America alums.
Jameson Taillon, the starting pitcher for the National Team in the 2009 Under Armour All-America Game, went seven innings allowing only four hits and two runs to earn his 13th win of the year as the Pirates took a game from the National League Wild Card hopeful, St. Louis Cardinals. Taillon was one of the MVP’s of that 2009 game. The other was Nick Castellanos from the Detroit Tigers, who continued his big season with the bat with homer #21 for the season on Wednesday night. Overall, the Tigers third baseman is having a career year with highs in average (.294), doubles (40) and runs scored (78) to go along with 81 RBI.
Other alums of the Under Armour All-America Game who went deep on Wednesday were Matt Olson of the A’s, who slugged his 26th home run of the season in a win against the Orioles and JP Crawford of the Phillies, who connected on his third homer of the season in a loss to the Nationals.
In addition, seven other former All-Americans tailled hits for their respective teams:
Scooter Gennett – The 2008 Pre-Season and Under Armour All-American collected seven hits in the series against the Dodgers, including four on Monday, September 10th, also driving in four runs during the series. Gennett is hitting .321 this season with 22 homers and 88 RBI.
George Springer – Springer was a Baseball Factory Cape Cod High School All-American in 2007 and he collected two hits and scored a run in the Astros’ 5-4 win against the Detroit Tigers. Springer is hitting .261 with 20 homers and 63 RBI this season.
Jake Marisnick – Springer’s teammate was a 2008 Under Armour All-American and also collected two hits and a run scored in Wednesday’s victory over the Tigers. Marisnick hit .421 with two doubles and two homers in the month of August.
Yairo Munoz – Munoz, a 2011 Under Armour All-American, collected two hits, including a double on Thursday night in the Cardinals loss to the Dodgers. Munoz has 11 hits in 33 at-bats with three doubles, two home runs and three RBI so far in the month of September.
Addison Russell – The 2010 Under Armour All-American collected a hit on Wednesday night for the first-place Chicago Cubs.
Franmil Reyes – Reyes continues his torrid summer since being recalled, collecting an RBI single on Tuesday night and another hit on Wednesday night. Franmil, a 2011 Under Armour All-American, hit .308 with seven homers and nine RBI in August and is hitting .324 with two homers and seven RBI so far in September.
Greg Bird – Bird looks to continue hitting for the Yankees as he collected an RBI double on Wednesday against the Twins. Bird played in the 2010 Under Armour All-America Game.
