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 MIKE
ADAMS - franklin pierce ravens
PING!BASEBALL DIVISION II SPOTLIGHT
In honor of President’s Day, Ping!Baseball
profiles a student athlete from a school named after one of
the country’s least celebrated past presidents, Franklin
Pierce. While the 14th president is highly regarded
as one of the worst leaders this country has ever had
(a northerner being supportive of the Confederacy will cast
a shadow on your legacy), there is no denying that one of
the best baseball teams in the land bares his name.  In
the 90’s the FPU Ravens were an on-field abomination.
The team complied four total wins in 1992 and ‘93 combined,
yes… COMBINED! A record like that made even Pierce’s
(or Dubya’s) presidency look good. However a decade
later, FPU is a powerhouse program and consistent title contender,
thanks in large part to Head Coach Jayson King who has recruited
and developed gifted players that would make many DI programs
envious. One of those top shelf talents is senior starter
Mike Adams.
Adams was first team all-everything last
year after posting the kind of season that got Jericho
Scott kicked out of little league. Adams won eleven games
last season with only one loss. His only defeat was at the
hands of Pace University who only scored a single earned run
in seven innings (the Setters did score three unearned runs
due to an Adams error, but that’s beside the point).
In 112 innings, Adams only allowed 72 hits for an absolutely
filthy .183 opponents’ batting average while fanning
113. His 1.36 ERA was second in the conference (and the nation!).
Adams also earned a pair of saves to boot, one of which was
in the NE-10 Tournament Title game against Southern Connecticut
in which he threw 1.2 shutout innings. He recorded a career-high
12 strikeouts in just seven innings in the tournament opener
versus Bentley a few days prior. In 2007 he posted lopsided
statistics as well. In a dual starter/reliever role, Adams
went 6-0 with a 1.73 ERA and limited Ravens’ opposition
to a .218 batting average.
Adams isn’t bloating his numbers Kimbo
Slice style, feasting on feeble competition. He proved over
the summer he
can go toe to toe with the best. Adams threw two scoreless
innings for the NECBL‘s North Shore Navigators against
Team USA and struck out four of the eight batters he faced.
His strikeout victims included top college baseball posterboys
Dusty Coleman (Wichita State), Ryan Ortiz (Oregon State),
Aaron Senne (Missouri) and Josh Phegley (Indiana).
I am using parenthesis quite a bit in this
article (this make nine times).
Coach King doesn’t feel sorry for unleashing
his phenom on Northeast-10 rivals and makes no apologies,
“With the wood bats there is not many runs scored so
it is vital to have your number one guy dominate like he has,”
King explained, “I enjoy having him on the mound because
he takes control of the game… If I could roll out 10
guys like him I would and feel great about it!”. Not
cool Coach... You must like taking
candy from babies too.
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