The league’s 14th best starter, Calyb King, was sent by his college coach, a man already well known in Valley League circles- Lawrence Nesselrodt, the coach of the 2007 Valley League champion Waynesboro Generals.

King, a 5-foot-10 righthander, didn’t come to play in Waynesboro; he joined Nesselrodt’s assistant coach, Alex Kotheimer, in Covington.

Well, the Jacks got a good one, as King put up the following numbers:

Cov ERA W L G GS IP H R ER BB K BAVG WHIP BB/9 K/9
2019 3.03 3 1 6 6 32.7 32 11 11 13 28 0.267 1.376 3.6 7.7
Play 10.12 0 1 1 1 5.3 11 6 6 2 4 0.423 2.453 3.4 6.8

Among pitchers considered for this list, King finished eighth in ERA, and ninth in innings pitched. He was a mid-season All-Star as well.

He had three games where he was lights out:

  • His first very good start was on June 3 against Woodstock, when he threw five shutout innings while allowing three hits, two walks, and striking out five to earn the win. It was his first start of the year.
  • In his second start, June 12 against Winchester, he threw six shutout, no-hit innings, with three walks, eight strikeouts, the win and Pitcher of the Day award. He earned a 77 game score, which ended up tied- with himself- for the eighth best in the summer. After his first two starts he had fired 11 shutout innings while only allowing three hits.
  • His third excellent start was on July 17, at Winchester: a complete nine innings, with five hits, one run, one walk, and five strikeouts. He eanred the win and his second Pitcher of the Day award.. and a game score of 77.

King took a huge step forward at Tech in 2019:

ERA W L G GS IP H R ER BB K WHIP BB/9 K/9
2018 7.48 2 0 15 0 27.7 35 23 23 14 31 1.769 4.5 10.1
2019 3.04 7 1 12 7 50.3 39 20 17 18 61 1.133 3.2 10.9

He was named All-River States Conference 2nd Team at starting pitcher in 2019.

King