2 minute read
Baseball players’ hits, strikeouts nearly uniform
Tahraun Hammond is to Virginia State University baseball what Shohei Ohtani is to the major leagues.
From Japan, Ohtani pitches and hits up a storm for the Los Angeles Angels. He’s the best two-way player in baseball history.
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Hammond performs similar heroics for VSU Coach Merrill Morgan.
Heading into this month for the 6-4 Trojans, Hammond is now hitting .442 (19 for 43) with nine stolen bases in 10 tries.
On the mound, the 5-foot-9 sophomore from Tappahannock has a 1.72 earned run averages with 22 strikeouts in 15.2 innings. When he’s not pitching, he’s a skilled infielder with a powerful throwing arm.
The Trojans have a 44-game mix ‘n’ match regular season schedule of schools from various conferences. Only Lincoln and Claflin from the CIAA sponsor baseball.
Since there are not enough CIAA teams with baseball programs, VSU will compete at the end of the season for the New South Conference title.
VSU won the New South crown a year ago with Hammond playing a major role in Elizabeth City. Other New
South affiliates include Thomas Nelson Community College, Newport News Apprentice School, Mid-Atlantic Christian, N.C., and Salem, W.Va.
Before anyone says “What about Babe Ruth?” regarding two-ways players, here’s what happened.
Ruth was primarily a pitcher from 1910 to 1919 with Boston. Once he went to the outfield with the New York Yankees in 2020, the left-hander pitched only five games in 13 seasons.
Ruth was never a full-time hitter and pitcher like Ohtani is now for Los Angeles and Hammond for VSU.
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Black Mountain is in the extreme western end of North Carolina where stock car racing is much more popular than basketball.
Good naturedly, Daugherty told the media, “there are about 5,000 to 6,000 people in Black Mountain and only about 100 African-Americans — all of ’em my cousins.”
As for Wallace at Daytona, he’s had better days in his Toyota. Wallace finished 20th out of 40 racing for the 23XI Race Team (pronounced 23-11) owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin.
Brad Dagherty was the No. 1 overall draft choice (by Cleveland) in 1986 and went on to average 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for Cleveland. He was a fivetime NBA All-Star whose No. 43 was retired by the Cavs.
Antoine Davis approaching Pete Maravich’s scoring record
It might not be over yet for Antoine Davis.
The Detroit-Mercy graduate student guard came up three points short of tying Pete Maravich’s NCAA Division I career scoring record on March 2. Davis was held to 22 points in Detroit’s loss to Youngstown in the second round of the Horizon League tournament. Maravich scored 3,667 points in three seasons at LSU more than a half century ago. Davis now has 3,664 points in five seasons in Detroit.
So, it’s over? Maybe not. Detroit (14-19) is exploring the possibility of playing in the 16-team College Basketball Invitational (CBI) post-season tournament in Daytona, Fla.
There is a $27,500 entry fee into the single-elimination event. UNC-Wilmington won the event last year and in 2010 VCU was the champ.
With just one more game, Davis (averaging about 29 per outing) would surely pass Maravich and become college’s all-time scorer — with an asterisk attached.