Cougars Claim the Championship

Last month, Baseball Factory traveled south in order to spend some time on the diamond with Texas’ Canyon High School. George Foster, former Cincinnati Reds’ slugger and 1977 National League MVP, along with Steve Sclafani, Harry Grumet and Jason Budden spent three days with the Cougars and provided hitting and fielding instruction. Foster was able to provide the players with his extensive baseball knowledge in order to help improve their hitting mechanics and give them confidence at the plate. It seems as though the extra instruction helped as Canyon recently claimed the District 25-4A championship.

Entering the last game of the season locked in a three-way tie for first place, the Canyon Cougars edged out rival Del Valle with a score of 6-5 to earn the title. Canyon finished up the season with a 9-3 record in the district and a 15-10 record overall.

Baseball Factory’s own Chad Gregson, started the Cougars off with three-run homer in the bottom of the first and an RBI single in the third. Although De Valle attempted to rally, Canyon was able to secure its win with 2 hits from J.W. Shafer – one in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game and one in the bottom of the ninth to win.



Baseball Factory would also like to congratulate the following players on their accomplishments throughout the 2003 season:

Baseball Factory All-American, Anthony Whittington, of Buffalo, West Virginia, was recently named in Sports Illustrated’s “Faces in the Crowd.” Last month, Whittington pitched a seven-inning no hitter and set a state record when he struck out every batter except one, who reached on an error. In his two previous starts, he had 38 strikeouts, no walks and no earned runs in 14 innings pitched.



Landon High School’s baseball program has benefited from the contributions of many Baseball Factory players, several of which will be going on to play at the college level next year.

Ryan Stephens and John Berke will play at Haverford College. Sam Timberg will head north to play at Middlebury College, and Mike Horning will join the team at Washington and Lee.

Joey Marsh, who will be attending University of Virginia next fall, has contributed offensively throughout the 2003 season along with underclassmen Marcus Jones and R.J. Fox.

Brian Winings and Mike Goldblatt have gone on from Baseball Factory to succeed at the college level. The sophomore and junior, respectively, made a difference on the mound and at the plate this season for the Ivy League’s University of Pennsylvania. Winings finished up the season with a batting average of .340 and managed 8 saves as the team’s closer. Goldblatt batted .343 and tallied 12 home runs for the Quakers. Other Baseball Factory players that made contributions to the team this year were Ken Ichi Hino, Josh Appell, Evan Sobel, Joe Udine and Brian Kelley. The Quakers finished 22-17 overall and 12-8 in the conference.



Freshman Cliff Pennington has already made a huge impact as the starting third baseman for Texas A & M. With seven regular season games left to go and post season games, Pennington, who has started in 46 of 48 games, is batting .328 with 38 runs, 9 stolen bases and a .402 slugging percentage.



Baseball Factory wishes all of these players continued success in all of their baseball endeavors.



Do you have an exciting story about your team or your individual performance? Submit all accolades to Baseball Factory by email to [email protected]. We want to hear about how you and your team are doing and your story may be published in an upcoming newsletter or in an online press release.