And now, in our last Elite Eight matchup, we have the battle of the Andrews- Eyster from New Market (2018), and Czech from Staunton (2019)!

  • Andrew Eyster got here by defeating Jerry Downs (86-14%) and JD Mundy (52-48%- close one). His writeup: “Andrew Eyster (New Market 2018) was not only Valley League MVP two summers ago, but he helped New Market to the town’s first title since 2002. A rising senior at South Carolina, Eyster hit .421/.511/.781 in 114 regular season at-bats, with 14 doubles, nine home runs, 35 RBIs, and a 18/21 BB/K ratio. (He hit .345/.355/.690 in 29 playoff at-bats, too.) He finished 1st in the league in batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS (obviously), and doubles, while finishing 3rd in total bases (89), 4th in RBIs, 2nd in home runs, tied for 6th in hits, tied for 4th in runs, and 8th in walks. He was named 1st team All-Valley in the outfield, and as mentioned, he was also the Most Valuable Player. Every single person ATVL spoke to about top prospects from the summer said that Eyster was the best player in the league, and it wasn’t particularly close.”
  • Andrew Czech defeated Mac Williamson (90-10%- whoa) and Rick Spiers (66-34%). “Czech, a rather large man at 6-foot-6, pummelled VBL pitching in 2019 for the Staunton baseball team. In 40 games and 157 at-bats, he hit .344/.453/.611, with 31 runs scored, 15 doubles, nine home runs, 47 RBIs, and an excellent 30/23 BB/K ratio. He was in the top ten of league leaders in every single category except for triples- he was tied for eighth in batting average, seventh in OPS, tied for seventh in on base percentage, fifth in slugging percentage, second in walks, second in total bases (with 96), first in RBIs, tied for second in home runs, tied for first in doubles, second in hits, and tied for eighth in runs. Woof. As a sophomore in 2018, he hit .368/.493/.737 in 171 at-bats, with 18 doubles and 15 home runs. As a junior in ’19, he upped those numbers to .417/.538/.823 in 175 at-bats, with 18 doubles and 17 home runs. Czech is planning to return to Walsh for a redshirt senior season in 2021.”

Vote by going to twitter.com/JohnATVL.

And by the way, if you want to read a ton about either the 2015 or 2019 VBL season, be sure to check out this post on the 2019 Valley League Annual.

Also, please check out and subscribe to the Valley Baseball League youtube channel– some awesome stuff is released almost every day!

  • Czech