The Wood River High School baseball coaching staff of Matt Nelson, Jonah Torseth and Jesse Neet is proud of the continued progress of three former Wolverines who are playing college baseball this spring in Idaho, Oregon and Kentucky.
College players from Wood River include Trent Seamons, Patrick Patterson and Greg Wakefield. Seamons, in fact, plans to coach the Wood River American Legion baseball team this summer, replacing Nelson.
Smooth-fielding outfielder Seamons, 21, is tied for the team leadership in stolen bases (14 out of 15 attempts) for the Campbellsville University Tigers in Kentucky, a NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) college program.
The 6-0, 165-pound junior transfer from Oregon's Treasure Valley Community College has started 17 of the 29 games for Campbellsville. A son of Dave and Val Seamons of Hailey, Trent is an Eastern Region Gold Glover with a .286 batting average (16 hits, 19 runs, 7 RBI) and a .394 on-base percentage.
Coached for the 21st year by Beauford Sanders, Campbellsville began its season in February with a 1-5 record but is now 23-15 (17-4 league, 15-6 home) and has won the Mid-South Conference (MSC) Western Division championship. The 10-team MSC tournament begins April 22. Campbellsville has won the MSC tournament for six consecutive years.
Hard-throwing Wood River workhorse righthanded pitcher Patterson, 21, has made nine appearances (3 starts) for the Northwest Nazarene University Crusaders based in Nampa and coached by Tim Onofrei.
Patterson, a 5-10, 185-pound junior transfer from Coos Bay (Ore.) Community College, has a 1-3 record and 28 strikeouts and 29 innings of mound work for NNU (27-13, 12-12 league, 15-9 home, 12-4 away).
The Crusaders started off the season sizzling hot with an 11-1 record but have cooled off in Great Northwest Athletic Conference play—with final road series April 29-30 against St. Martin's University at Lacey, Wash. and May 5-6 against Western Oregon University at Monmouth.
Leading hitter for NNU this spring has been Jerome High School product Logan Parker, a 6-1, 190-pound lefty sophomore outfielder carrying a .386 batting average with 54 hits.
Meanwhile, in Albany, Ore., Wood River alumni Greg Wakefield is a 6-3 soph righthanded pitcher for the Linn Benton Community College Roadrunners, playing in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (NWAACC). Linn Benton is tied for third place in the NWAACC South Division with an 11-11 record, and 5-5 in league play.
