Adam Twitty
Erskine College Hosts Collegiate Baseball Players
Eight members of the Erskine College baseball team are among the 54 players staying on campus this summer who are competing in the Southern Collegiate Baseball League.
Erskine head baseball coach Kevin Nichols said Flying Fleet players — Shelton Cisson, Chase Willingham, Hunter Gaffney, Robby Knapp, Chad Hinson, Adam Twitty, Matt Baker and Casey Smith — are playing for the Due West Indians.
Former major league baseball player Pedro Borbon, a top reliever for Cincinnati’s “Big Red Machine” in the mid-1970s, coaches the squad. A native of the Dominican Republic, Borbon spent most of his 12 seasons in the big leagues with the Reds, but also pitched for California (now Anaheim), San Francisco and St. Louis. He pitched in 593 regular season games and two World Series rings with the Reds in 1975 and 1976.
Members of the Due West team and the Carolina Warriors, based in Anderson, are staying at Pressly dormitory on the Erskine campus during the SCBL season, which runs through the end of July. Bruce McClure of Anderson owns both teams.
The SCBL is a 12-team league made up of franchises in the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee. The NCAA sanctions the league, Nichols said, and players must be eligible at their colleges in order to play in the league.
The teams staying in Due West have an international flavor, Nichols said, as there are seven players from Japan.
The Indians use the Erskine baseball field as their home, while the Warriors play their home games at Memorial Stadium in Anderson. Both teams use the Erskine baseball program’s practice facilities.
The teams play an average of six games a week, Nichols said.
The other 10 teams in the league are the Asheville Redbirds, Kernersville Bulldogs, Spartanburg Crickets, Carolina Chaos, Carolina Copperheads, Athens Pirate Kings, Rock Hill Sox, Tennessee Thunder, Lenoir Oilers and Rowan Pirates.
Nichols coached the Seneca Indians in the SCBL last summer and said he “saw a great opportunity to have some kids on campus during the summer. What better way to keep kids out of trouble than to bring them to Due West and have them stay in our dorm?”
Also, Nichols said there are several junior college players who are competing in the league and if they are staying at Erskine, it gives them a chance to “take a good look at our school for two full months.”
“They get the full Erskine experience,” he said.
The players are not just playing baseball while they are at Erskine. “They’re also doing camps and community service,” Nichols said.
Two other Erskine baseball players are participating in summer league competition. Jon Murrell, Carolinas-Virginia Athletic Conference freshman of the year in 2002, and three-year starter Wes Edwards are members of the Petersburg Generals squad in the Coastal Plains League.
