Written by: Monica Klinkmueller

Georgia College Baseball held its annual prospect camp on Saturday, Oct. 15, hosting 42 Georgia high school baseball players. The camp allowed the players to show off their skills through a variety of exercises.

Players completed drills revolving around primary position play, defensive and offensive skills, a 40- yard dash, and a 13-inning simulated game. In addition to time on the baseball field, the high schoolers were given a tour of GC and the athletic facilities. Mason Parker, a freshman pitcher on the GC baseball team, attended the camp when he was a senior in high school. Parker thinks that the camp is a great way to get high school baseball players interested in playing for GC.

“I think Georgia College has the best coaching staff in the entire Peach Belt Conference,” Parker said. “You come to Georgia College and they immediately make you feel at home and welcome you. It’s just a great environment to be in, and they know their baseball.” For Parker, attending the camp helped him make the decision to play for GC.

“Georgia College had always been on my map, I played at Georgia College between my sophomore and junior year of high school and just absolutely fell in love with the place,” Parker said. “Attending the camp made me love it even more.”

Kyle King, a sophomore catcher, also came to the prospect camp as a senior in high school. “It was a good experience to see how the college game was taught coming from the coaches and players,” King said. “It was good to meet all the coaches and the players. Plus, I got the chance to come to the campus and show off my skills to see what they thought of me.”

The camp gives the GC baseball coaches an opportunity to see players from all across the state on one field, which gives the coaches an opportunity to evaluate players they normally would not have the chance to evaluate.

“The first thing we get to do is is show off GC and what it is all about to some of the people around the state that haven’t seen Milledgeville or our facilities,” GC baseball’s head coach Jason Eller said. “It gives us a chance to show off our program and inform everyone on what we do here, so it opens up a lot of recruiting and networking avenues throughout the state.”

Every year the camp opens the doors to new prospects that the baseball team will later recruit with hopes of getting a few commits out of the bunch, and this year was no different.

“I am hoping to recruit a couple from the camp today, and hopefully sign them and have them sign national letters of intent,” Eller said. “I think we got some new Bobcats in the house.”

(Feature image by: GC Communications)