In case you haven’t realized it yet, Brilliant Reader, ATVL indeed loves on-base percentage. The 7th best hitter in the 2018 Valley League season is yet another young man who can control the strike zone, and hit for some power as well.
Front Royal’s Spencer Packard, who attended Arizona Western his first two college seasons and will play for Campbell this year, knows how to work the count. In fact, his 34 walks (against only 23 strikeouts) placed him 3rd in the league.
A look at the whole picture:
FR | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | K | SB | CS | Avg | OBP | SLG |
2018 | 37 | 126 | 28 | 44 | 9 | 0 | 4 | 20 | 34 | 23 | 0 | 3 | 0.349 | 0.494 | 0.516 |
Play | 2 | 9 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.444 | 0.500 | 0.556 |
He finished 8th in the league in OPS, 2nd in on base percentage, the aforementioned 3rd in walks, tied for 9th in home runs, and was named 2nd Team All-Valley in the outfield. He was hitter of the day twice, and really had one of the best games of the entire season on July 11th against Covington, when he went 4-5, with 4 runs, 4 RBIs, and 3 home runs. (Interesting that he hit 75% of his home runs in one day.) He also went 5-5, with 3 runs, 2 RBIs, and 3 doubles on July 20th against Woodstock.
His performance shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise, as this is what he did for Arizona Western in his first two years of college baseball:
AW | G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | BB | K | SB | CS | Avg | OBP | SLG |
2017 | 62 | 206 | 33 | 75 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 38 | 26 | 42 | 1 | 1 | 0.364 | 0.436 | 0.466 |
2018 | 65 | 230 | 56 | 88 | 25 | 1 | 8 | 63 | 36 | 33 | 2 | 0 | 0.383 | 0.480 | 0.604 |
He was named 2nd Team All-ACCAC and D-I All-Region in 2018, after his slash line improved across the board. Spencer has joined the Campbell Fighting Camels to play for head coach Justin Haire in the Big South Conference in 2019.
Congratulations on your excellent summer, Spencer!