Moving on down the list towards #1, the #8 hitter in the league, according to All Things Valley League, is Staunton’s Joey Rodriguez, the rising junior from Wake Forest.
Overall, Joey hit 355/421/487 in 152 at-bats, with 42 runs, 54 hits, 12 doubles, a triple, 2 home runs, 22 RBIs, 12/21 BB/K ratio, and 20 stolen bases (against ZERO caught stealing). He was tied for 3rd in the league in batting average, 4th in on-base percentage, 8th in slugging percentage, tied for 3rd in hits, 2nd in runs, and tied for 4th in doubles. Whoa.
The Miami native’s top three games during the season were pretty impressive, too. On June 25th against Strasburg, Joey went 4-6 and scored 4 runs. On July 1, he pounded the Waynesboro Generals by going 5-6, with a double and 2 runs scored. His third big game might have been his best. On July 22, against Covington, Rodriguez went 4-5 with a run and 3 doubles. Coincidentally, the Braves won all three of those games.
As a freshman at Wake Forest in 2013, Joey hit 221/257/316 in 95 at-bats. As a sophomore in ’14, he hit 204/278/282 in 103 at-bats. I would not be surprised if the consistent playing time in the Valley League season will springboard Joey to great heights this spring during his junior year!
All Things Valley League 