The 17th best hitter in the 2019 Valley League season, Woodstock’s Willy Escala, was one of the league’s top middle infielders all season.

Seeing time at both shortstop and second base for the Bandits, Escala was both an All-Star and a Showcase participant, proving himself both at the plate and in the field.

His summer stats look like this:

VBL G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG
2019 26 112 23 39 7 2 0 15 9 18 8 0 0.348 0.400 0.446
Play 5 23 5 4 0 1 0 1 3 6 1 0 0.174 0.296 0.261

He finished seventh in the league in batting average, tied for fourth in triples, and had a 17-game hitting streak from June 29 to July 23. He was named second team All-Valley League at shortstop at the end of the season.

He was hitter of the day twice, on June 23 against Purcellville, when he went 3-6 with a run, double, and RBI, and on July 21 at Covington, when he went 4-6, with five runs, three RBIs, and two walks (he was on base six times in that one!).

Escala played consistently as a freshman at Miami, but not nearly as much as a sophomore:

Miami G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG
2018 53 182 25 51 6 0 2 11 22 64 7 7 0.280 0.373 0.346
2019 36 65 16 17 5 1 0 8 7 21 8 0 0.262 0.342 0.369

He has transferred to Division-II Barry for the 2019-20 season.

The Valley League wasn’t his first sumer league experience, as he played for Anchorage in the Alaska Summer League in 2018:

ASL G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG
2018 40 159 30 37 4 2 0 14 15 42 3 2 0.233 0.303 0.283

Congratulations, Willy!