Four days away from opening the 2008 season, the University of Tennessee baseball team is reeling in some recruits who will make their debuts in 2010.
The Vols have received verbal commitments from three high school juniors: Brandon King (Martinsburg, W.Va.), Cody Stubbs (Tuscola, N.C.) and Nick Blount (South Gwinnett, Ga.).
There's a common denominator with all of these guys - they're huge.
King is 6-foot-4, 240 pounds and is a combo pitcher/first baseman/third baseman who hits for power (11 home runs as a sophomore).
Stubbs is 6-4, 210 pounds, plays first and hits with power.
Blount is 6-7, 210 pounds and was recruited primarily as a pitcher.
"My mom, my dad and my grandparents have always been big Tennessee fans (from Kingsport)," King said. "They've always taken me to football games and basketball games. I've always been a big fan, and UT was always a place I wanted to go."
For one reason or another, that's another thing the three recruits have in common.
Stubbs knows first-year Tennessee coach Todd Raleigh well from Raleigh's days as coach at Western Carolina. Despite both of his parents being athletes from Vanderbilt, Stubbs knew he wanted to follow Raleigh to Knoxville.
"My mom and dad are very happy and have bought into me going to Tennessee," Stubbs told the Waynesville Mountaineer. "I think (my dad's) happy that I'm going to play for Coach Raleigh more than playing for Tennessee. He just smiles and shakes his head."
King and Blount both throw 88-92 mph and talked about their faith in playing for UT pitching coach Fred Corral.
"The coaching staff down there is without a doubt one of the best in the country," King said. "They're all like a big family down there and that was a big part of my decision with my going eight hours away from home."
King picked UT ahead of LSU, Virginia and South Carolina. LSU also was looking at Stubbs, and Blount picked UT instead of staying close to home at Georgia Tech.
"They saw me pitch when I went down to Jupiter, Florida, (Perfect Game camp) and that's when I started talking to the coaches," Blount said. "I really like Coach Corral. He really sounds like he knows what he's talking about."
The 2008 Vols open the season Friday at home against Morehead State.
Broadcast Schedule: UT announced all but one of the Vols' 56 regular-season games will be broadcast free online at UTsports.com. WNML (AM 990, FM 99.1) will broadcast as many as 43 UT games.
The Vols also are slated for regional televised games six times: LSU (March 15, SportSouth), Florida (April 4, SportSouth and April 5 Fox Sports Net), Alabama (April 12, SportSouth), Vanderbilt (May 3, Fox Sports Net) and Kentucky (May 10, SportSouth).
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Comments » 6
surlyguy writes:
This sounds great. Go Vols!
nivatne writes:
where are the football recruits for 2010?? now that I think about it, where are the recruits for 2009???????
Pullingguard writes:
Never a walk with the strike zone of these players.
Hope they can hit.
GiveHimSix1387 writes:
Can any of them play DL?
misterorange writes:
Man, I got so excited until I found out this was about baseball. Congratulations are in order anyway. Good job coach Raleigh!
connerwins#438492 writes:
You show quite a bit of class with your ignorant comments, people. You wasted your own time to demean the same university you (may) contend you love.
Negativity never improves productivity. Fools.
Good job, Coach Raleigh. Most of us pay attention to the job you've done and are doing. You make us just as proud as the other University of Tennessee coaches and i am grateful you are with us. Keep up the good work, sir!
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