While some players travel far and wide to get to the Valley to play some summer ball, others get to stay home.

Our 16th best hitter of the 2019 Valley League season is one of the latter; Cayman Richardson grew up in Mechanicsville, Virginia, and is attending the University of Virginia. So playing for the Charlottesville Tom Sox must have felt somewhat familiar for the young man.

And did he ever hit:

VBL G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG
2019 33 131 36 45 7 1 1 19 13 23 4 0 0.344 0.420 0.435
Play 5 21 4 10 0 1 0 0 1 5 0 0 0.476 0.500 0.571

Richardson finished the regular season tied for eighth in the league in batting average, tied for tenth in hits, and tied for third in runs scored. He was first team All-Valley in the outfield, and was ATVL’s hitter of the day twice- on June 2 and June 10.

On June 2nd, he went 4-5 at Staunton, with four runs, a triple, two RBIs, and a hit-by-pitch. He was also excellent just two days later at Winchester, also going 4-5, with another four runs, a double, three RBIs, a walk, and stolen base. He hit in 13 straight games between July 5 and July 21 as well. He had four hits twice, three hits seven times, and two six times.

The 6-foot-1 rising senior has received consistent playing time for the last two years at UVA:

UVA G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG
2017 19 39 8 9 0 1 0 2 3 2 0 0 0.231 0.302 0.282
2018 47 156 24 40 7 0 0 18 16 21 7 0 0.256 0.343 0.301
2019 49 155 29 44 5 3 1 16 12 43 4 3 0.284 0.343 0.374

This was actually Richardson’s third summer league experience; he spent 2017 in the Cal Ripken League, and 2018 in the Northwoods League. In fact, D1baseball named him the 25th best prospect in the Northwoods League after the summer of ’18.

His stats:

G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB K SB CS Avg OBP SLG
2017 29 109 15 26 3 1 0 11 11 14 13 6 0.239 0.308 0.284
2018 38 149 26 45 5 2 0 22 15 25 3 1 0.302 0.379 0.362

Congratulations on your excellent summer!

Richardson