Matt Weaver has turned his numbers around in 2008 as Westfield’s left- handed pitching ace. He will look for even more wins on the mound as a college pitcher as he signed to play baseball at Darton College in Albany.
Darton, a member of the Georgia junior college conference, is currently second in the league to Young Harris with a 14-9 record. The head coach is Scott Case, a former Middle Georgia College assistant who recruited former Warner Robins High pitcher Chris Snipes to the Cochran school.
“Our situation at Darton this year is we have a lot of freshmen position-wise, but we do lose nearly half of our pitching staff,” said Case. “We concentrated this recruiting season on bringing in pitchers, and we think Matt’s going to fit right in. I was very impressed with him in the outings I’ve seen him throw, and I think he has a chance to come in and make an impact on our rotation right away.”
Case said this was a situation where some outside sources from his own staff helped bring Weaver’s name to his attention. He said Chance Reynolds of the TNL school in Macon called him about Weaver knowing he was looking for a left-handed arm. Reynolds has worked with several other Westfield and Houston County players in the past.
“(Reynolds) said (Weaver) had a great summer for him,” said Case. “I had the opportunity to watch him pitch about a month and a half ago and liked what I saw. Chance is one of those guys I put a lot of trust in. He does a great job getting them out playing good baseball. Anytime you are successful in him we think it’s going to roll over into your college career.”
Westfield head coach Billy Sellers said Weaver’s major improvement this year is in his ability to get ahead in the count. After going 3-5 as a junior with a 4.23 earned run average, Weaver – as of Tuesday – has a 4-0 mark, a 1.88 ERA and 43 strikeouts to eight walks in 22 1/3 innings.
“Every time I get on the hill it’s with the attitude to win,” said Weaver, who also hits .355 this year. “You can’t back down, especially at the high school level. Every batter you face has either seen you before or heard about you, and you have to have the dominant attitude that you are going to win. “Pitching for Westfield has been a great opportunity. TNL, playing in the summer and bringing back my summer technique to here, it’s helped me out. It makes a real difference.”
Weaver plans to major in business and make the best of his two years in Case’s program.
“Try to keep the grades up,” he said.
