Baseball

Purple and Gold Sign Offensive-Minded Short Stop

John McGraw - 4/13/2010  
The Watertown Wizards, proud members of the New York Collegiate Baseball League, have signed James Frederick, a run-producing short stop from Mid-America Christian University for the 2010 season. Frederick is the first player from the Oklahoma City, Okla., school to sign with the Wizards in the 11-year history of the franchise.
 

Frederick is a junior from Grand Terrace, Calif. He transferred to Mid-America Christian after two seasons at San Bernardino Valley College. Frederick is having a tremendous first season for the NAIA school. He leads the Evangels in batting average (.440), hits (62), runs batted in (49) and doubles (12). Frederick's 62 overall hits rank 10th nationally at the NAIA Division I level and he is 12th in hits per game (1.676). The MACU junior also ranks nationally in overall runs batted in and RBI per game. He has had at least one hit in 28 of 36 games played.

So far, Frederickhas 19 multi-hit and 13 multi-RBI games. He knocked in a season high six runs and swatted two triples in a 22-4 win over visiting Dallas Baptist on Feb. 20. The short stop has just five total home runs but two came in one game as part of a 5-for-5 effort in a March 6th loss to Southern Nazarene. Just under one month after his six-RBI output, Frederick slugged a grand slam and drove in five in a victory over Hastings on March 16.

The Grand Terrace, Calif., native was a first team All-Foothills Conference infielder last spring at San Bernardino Valley College and he earned the league's Golden Glove award. In addition, Frederick was named to the American Baseball Coaches Association/Rawlings Pacific Division Gold Glove team as a short stop. At the plate, Frederick hit .448 as a sophomore and finished with the 10th-highest batting average among all California Community College players.

Frederick's collegiate head coach at Mid-America Christian is Kevin Paxson. Paxson was the head coach of the NYCBL's Mohawk Valley Cobras during the summer of 2005.

The Watertown Wizards open the 2010 New York Collegiate Baseball League season at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds on Friday, June 4, against the Oneonta Outlaws. Game time is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. For ticket information, please call (315) 212-4096.

Print Friendly Version