Baseball Update - Team USA Cape Cod Alaska

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – The Arkansas Razorback baseball team is spread across the country playing in various summer leagues and today’s update focuses on Andy Wilkins and Team USA, Brett Eibner and Zack Cox of the Cape Cod League and Sam Murphy in the Alaska Baseball League.

Wilkins is enjoying a whirlwind tour with the Team USA (Collegiate) squad. After a five-game sweep of Team Canada and a four-game sweep of Guatemala in familiar territory in North Carolina, the team went on the road to the Northeast where it kept its winning ways going. Wilkins’ squad is now 11-0 on the summer after a 5-2 victory over the Mount Holyoke Blue Sox on Monday night and the team’s starting first baseman is batting .267 with 11 runs scored, 12 RBI and a team leading two home runs.

Team USA has had a jam packed schedule since they broke training camp and started to play games. In a recent discussion with Wilkins we came to find out that the team toured the National Basketball Hall of Fame while in Springfield, Mass., on Monday and Tuesday’s affairs include batting practice and a tour of historic Fenway Park in Boston before playing the North Shore Navigators in Lynn, Mass. On July 8 the team departs from Boston to the other side of the globe where they have five games scheduled against Japan in the Japan Collegiate Baseball Championship before their final round of games at the World Baseball Challenge in Prince George, British Columbia.

In the prestigious Cape Cod League, Arkansas’ two participants, Brett Eibner (Wareham Gatemen) and Zack Cox (Cotuit Kettleers), got a late start to the summer because of the College World Series, but the duo are making significant contributions. Eibner is batting .250 with two runs scored, two home runs and four RBI in seven games in the field and got his first start of the season on the pitcher’s mound on Monday night going 3.1 innings and allowing one run on three hits.

Cox is turning heads with his play as he leads Cotuit in batting average (.344) and has three doubles, three runs scored and four RBI. Cox has helped Cotuit in the standings as well as the Kettleers trail Eibner’s Gatemen by a single point for second in the League’s Western Division.

Out in the Alaska Baseball League, Sam Murphy laces up his spikes for the Mat-Su Miners and has been a strong presence in the team’s pitching staff. In two appearances this summer, Murphy has struck out seven batters in 10.0 innings and allowed just a single run on three hits and four walks. He has compiled a 1-1 record and boasts a stunning 0.90 ERA.

Check back for updates on the Texas Collegiate League, M.I.N.K. and Northwoods League. For more information regarding Razorback baseball or University of Arkansas athletics, please visit ArkansasRazorbacks.com.