| PING!BASEBALL SPOTLIGHT PLAYER
Jeremy Hamilton
Wright State Raiders |
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Perusing the roster of the USA Baseball
National Team, one sees the typical alma maters of the student
athlete’s representing the Red, White and Blue. Universities
from the Pac-10, Big XII, ACC and SEC unsurprisingly comprise
the bulk of the players on the national team. Others schools
with a history of national baseball success such as Rice,
Pepperdine and Long Beach State fill the rest of the roster
with minor exception. Jeremy Hamilton, a junior first baseman
from the Horizon League’s Wright State Raiders, made
the national club following a season in which he quietly put
up some of the most impressive numbers in the Midwest.
 Last
season the gregarious slugger from Cincinnati deservedly earned
All-Horizon League First Team honors and a spot on the Horizon
League All-Tournament Team after a stellar breakout season.
Hamilton started all but two games for the Raiders (56) and
compiled a .374 batting average in those contests. He garnered
84 hits with 22 doubles, six triples and nine home runs for
a robust .649 slugging percentage (54th in the nation). His
team leading 62 RBI (44th nationally) were the fifth-most
in a single season at WSU. The 6’1” swinging lefty
also showed outstanding poise at the plate, striking out only
24 times in 222 plate appearances. Hamilton was no slouch
with the mitt either, recording a Wright State single-season
record 529 putouts and committed only seven errors for a .988
fielding percentage. During the Horizon League Championships,
Hamilton drove home a tournament-high nine RBI, batted .389
(7-for-18) with three homeruns and scored five times, however
the Raiders were outplayed by the host UIC Flames and fell
in the final game to end their season at 36-22.
Post season, Hamilton packed his bags for
New England to play for North Adams of the NEBCL. He played
a week’s worth of games for the SteepleCats (batting
.348, 8 for 23 in eight games) before receiving an invitation
to tryout for the USA National Team. He soon joined the Stars
and Stripes and was quickly inserted into the Team USA lineup
as the DH against his former SteepleCat teammates. He went
three-for-four in his Red, White and Blue debut and the hits
kept coming. Hamilton hit .308 during his Team USA audition
to earn a spot on the final roster of the top 22 freshmen
and sophomore college players in the country. Playing first
base and left field for Team USA, Hamilton helped the team
finish at 25-12 over the summer, with a third place finish
at the World Port Tournament in the Netherlands and a silver
medal at the Pan American Games in Brazil.
In 2006 Hamilton helped the Raiders capture
the Horizon League Baseball Championship after a productive
freshman debut where he earned a spot on the Horizon League
All-Newcomer Team. He batted .282 his first year, with nine
doubles, five triples and five homeruns. In the post season
he was an important part of the Raider onslaught which outscored
their opponents 52-5 on their way to the Championship and
was named to the All-Tournament Team.
Before going to Wright State, Hamilton was
a three-year letter winner for the Princeton High School Vikings
baseball team and led his team to the Ohio final four for
the first time in over three decades. After WSU Coach Rob
Cooper caught a glimpse of Hamilton on the diamond when he
launched a homerun in a game as a junior, he was on the fast
path to donning the Green and Gold. Hamilton was on an official
visit to campus within a week and Coach Cooper’s philosophy
and confident attitude had Hamilton convinced he would be
spending his college years in Dayton.
As successful as Hamilton was at baseball
however, he was perhaps even more accomplished at another
sport: bowling. Hamilton, whose father is a coach for the
Princeton H.S. girls’ bowling team, has been bowling
since he was six, competing in junior leagues. His presence
at the alley was almost constant growing up and it shows.
He lettered three times in bowling, finishing 17th in the
2005 state tournament and maintained an average well over
200. In an outing with his WSU teammates, Hamilton dropped
the jaws of several Raiders when he scorched the lanes for
a 258 game.
Recently Hamilton was named as one of four
Horizon League players on the preseason 2008 Brooks Wallace
Player of the Year Award Watch List. The prestigious award
goes to the country's top collegiate baseball player and is
bestowed by The College Baseball Foundation. He joins teammate
Justin Parker, Josh Groves from Milwaukee and John Koehnlein
from Youngstown State on the list.
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