SunAlsoRises
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Roanoke Rapids Highschooler Signs with Seahawkshttp://blogs.starnewsonline.com/default.asp?item=2285388
| Quote: | Roanoke Rapids High School left-hander Tyler DeLoach signed a scholarship with the Seahawks on Wednesday. He is one of the bright prospects of their 2009 class.
It is a name fans should remember.
His prep coach, Mark Snead, calls him the ace of the staff the previous two seasons and he also will be in in the spring.
As a junior, he flashed enormous potential despite missing two weeks with a broken bone in his foot from a freak accident.
A teammate borrowed DeLoach's metal bat and somehow cracked it. So DeLoach carried the bat home and hung it on his bed room wall.
One morning he bumped into the wall, and this is a true story, the bat fell on his foot.
"It sliced the area just below his heel,'' Snead said. "In the team photo, you can see him wearing flip flops.''
The injury required stitches, DeLoach missed four games and drove his coach crazy.
"He missed it and wanted to play so much,'' Snead said. "He wanted to play so bad that he begged me to put him in, even though he was in flip flops. It is amusing now that we look back at it.''
DeLoach threw a no-hitter in his first game following the injury. He also beat Cedar Ridge with a 15-strikeout performance in the playoffs.
"He is a real warrior,'' Snead said. "He has very few walks and attacks the strike zone with a fastball, curve and change up.''
As a junior, DeLoach had 80 strikeouts in only 35 innings.
DeLoach has big-time potential, from what I gather. Snead turned his name into the Major League Baseball Scouting Bureau, which means professional talent evaluators plan to see him pitch in the spring.
"I can see him being drafted in the future,'' Snead said.
My guess is DeLoach won't be drafted high enough, if taken at all in the June 2009 draft, to consider the pros. I think, from all indications, he has a good chance of being drafted following his junior season with the Seahawks.
"His change up is in the developmental stage,'' Snead said. "His fastball has incredible movement on it. There are very few hard hit balls off him. Right now, his change up is more of an off-speed pitch. We are trying to get more downward movement on it.''
Snead thinks the Seahawks' pitching coach Jason Howell will teach DeLoach a slider and make him a true power pitcher.
"One thing about Tyler and that is when he faces better competition, he performs even better,'' Snead said. "That's why I know he has it in him to do very well in college.'' |
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The Rock
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When I think Seahawks, I think Seattle. I came in here ready to be very impressed that we had some kid in the NFL, but this is still impressive too I suppose.
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