Several former Tusculum College baseball student-athletes are continuing to pursue their dreams playing the game professionally throughout the world.
Pioneers still playing professionally are Placido Torres, Devan Watts, Brandon Dickson, Maikol Gonzalez, Alexi Colon, Cody Coffman, Matt Henriksen and Cameron Carney.
Torres pitched a pair of complete game victories in his two postseason starts this year for the Pioneers.
Placido Torres, who was drafted in the eighth round by the New York Mets in June, is pitching for the club’s rookie league affiliate in Kingsport. The 2016 consensus NCAA Division II National Pitcher of the Year has made nine relief appearances out of the Mets’ bullpen where he has a 1-1 record and a 3.97 ERA. Torres got off to a slow start with the K-Mets, but is returning to his stellar form of late, posting a 1.59 ERA in his last five outings with nine strikeouts in 5.2 innings of work.
Torres, a product of North Brunswick, NJ, captured every NCAA Division II Pitcher of the Year accolade in the finest season ever recorded by a Tusculum hurler. He swept the three national pitcher of the year awards by the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA), National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and the Division II Conference Commissioners Association (D2CAA – selected by the College Sports Information Directors of America). He was also tabbed the 2016 recipient of the Brett Tomko Award, which recognizes the DII National Pitcher of the Year as selected by D2 Baseball News. Torres was also named the 2015-16 Tusculum College Male Athlete of the Year and the South Atlantic Conference (SAC) Male Athlete of the Year. He posted a perfect 11-0 record in his 14 starts where he pitched seven complete games, including a Tusculum-single-season record four shutouts. He led all three NCAA divisions with a school single-season record 162 strikeouts. His seasonal strikeout total is the second most in SAC history and the 10th most in NCAA II history.
Devan Watts was selected in the 17th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by the Atlanta Braves. He was assigned to the Braves’ rookie league affiliate in Danville (Va.) where he pitched in only four games and didn’t allow a run in his four innings of relief while also posting a save. Watts, a right-hander from Mooresville, NC, was promoted to Class-A Rome (Ga.) where he has continued his mound dominance for the Braves. He has appeared in nine contests and has a sterling 1.69 ERA with a 1-1 record and is tied for the team lead with five saves. He has recorded 12 strikeouts in his 10.2 innings of work. In Watts’ two seasons at Tusculum, the 2015 All-Region and All-SAC choice has recorded 14 saves and a 6-7 record in his 99.2 innings of work in his 43 relief appearances. He accounted for a 2.98 career earned run average with 121 strikeouts and 25 walks. His 14 saves are the fourth most in Tusculum history.
Brandon Dickson, a right-handed pitcher from Montgomery, AL, currently has an 8-9 record with a 4.32 earned run average in his fourth season with the Orix Buffaloes in the Nippon Professional League in Japan. In 2016, he has appeared in 19 games and pitched in 118.2 innings and has recorded 93 strikeouts against 58 walks. Dickson is in his 11th professional season, including the first seven within the St. Louis Cardinals organization, which signed him as an undrafted free agent out of Tusculum in 2006. He played two separate stints with the parent club in 2011 and again in 2012. He appeared in eight games for St. Louis, posting a 4.91 ERA in his 14.2 innings of work with no decisions. He posted 13 strikeouts and made his lone major league start on Sept. 1, 2011, against the Milwaukee Brewers. In his only season at Tusculum (2006), Dickson went 5-2 with a 3.39 ERA. His 24 mound appearances are tied for the second most in a season at Tusculum.
Alexi Colon is playing in his fifth professional season and fourth in independent ball. He started this year with the Lincoln (Neb.) Saltdogs of the American Association where he played the first 10 games of the season. He was later dealt to the River City Rascals, where he has emerged as one of the power hitters in the league with his 12 home runs, which are fourth-most in the Frontier League. His 43 walks this season are the fourth most in the league while playing for the O’Fallon, Missouri club. From 2013-2015, he played for the Schaumburg (Ill.) Boomers, where he led that club to a pair of Frontier League titles in 2013 and again in 2014. Colon, a two-time All-SAC and All-Region selection, completed his two-year career at Tusculum as its third-leading home run hitter, belting 33 round-trippers. In 2012, Colon finished second in the nation with 21 home runs, which were tied for the second most in Tusculum school history and ninth most in South Atlantic Conference history.
Maikol Gonzalez is a nine-year veteran of professional baseball and is in his first year with the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the American Association. He is batting .276 in his 72 games where he has 81 hits, including 10 doubles, two triples and three home runs. He leads the team with his 22 stolen bases (26 attempts) and has 33 RBI with 47 walks against just 38 strikeouts in his 293 at-bats. He played the 2015 campaign with Joplin in the American Association where he batted .305 with eight home runs and 44 RBI with the Blasters. Gonzalez stops in the American Association also include Joplin (Ill.), Lincoln (Neb.) and three seasons in El Paso (Texas). Gonzalez, a native of Maraca Ibo, Venezuela, played two seasons at Tusculum from 2007-2008 where he hit for a school record .457 in his 113 career games and was a two-time consensus All-American. He still holds the school record for career triples and career on-base percentage (.522). His 49 career stolen bases are second in Pioneer history, while his 13 career sacrifice flies are fourth-most.
Matt Henriksen is playing his third season with the Alpine Cowboys of the Pecos League. In 2016, the Hingham, MA product is batting .338 with 44 hits, including five doubles and six home runs. In his 43 games, he has accumulated 38 RBI with 22 walks and has three stolen bases to his credit. Henriksen played at Tusculum from 2010-2013 where he finished his career with a .320 batting average and is listed in the top-10 in 10 statistical categories in the TC record book.
Cody Coffman is playing in his first season with the Roswell Invaders in the Pecos League. He is batting a hefty .418 with 22 doubles, 22 home runs and 76 RBI in his 64 games. He has totaled 100 hits and scored 80 runs, while earning a spot on the North Division All-Star Team. Coffman, a native of Cape Coral, FL, played two seasons at Tusculum from 2011-2012 where he batted .391 with 141 hits in 361 at-bats. During Tusculum’s 2012 SAC title run, he earned All-America honors as a utility player as he logged playing time at catcher and first base. He led the Pioneers with his .417 batting average, which is the eighth-best by a Pioneer. He finished fourth in the country with his 90 hits (4th in TC history), including 19 doubles, a triple, nine home runs and 62 RBI. He scored 52 runs, while drawing 41 walks against just 17 strikeouts
Former Pioneer pitcher Cameron Carney joined Henriksen on the Alpine Cowboys roster. Carney, a native of Niagara Falls. NY, has not made an appearance for Alpine since joining the team. Carney made 17 appearances this past spring for the Pioneers, including seven starts where he posted a 4-0 record and a 4.40 earned average. He combined on a pair of shutouts and posted a save against Catawba. He pitched in 47 innings where he tallied 44 strikeouts against 10 walks and limited the opposition to a .272 batting average. In his two years at Tusculum, he finished with a perfect 5-0 record in his 29 appearances, including two saves and a 5.38 ERA. He tallied 65 strikeouts against 20 walks.
’00s
Lauren Abramson Baes ’02 of Franklin, TN, is entering her second year as the head athletic trainer at Father Ryan High School, the largest private high school in Tennessee. Baes and her fellow staff members oversee 600 athletes and 26 sports teams. In June 2016, the school was awarded the 1st Team Safe Sports Award from the National Athletic Trainer’s Society. This award is given to secondary schools that demonstrate they are keeping their athletes safe with certain procedures and protocols in case of injuries or emergencies. Father Ryan High School is only the 15th school in the state of Tennessee to receive this award.
Becca Boyd ’08 of Knoxville, TN, has been named vice president and director of human resources for SmartBank in Pigeon Forge, TN. Boyd has 17 years experience in the human resources field. Prior to joining SmartBank, she had served as director of human resources for Weigel’s.
’10s
Marissa Williams ’15, a native of Canton, MI, has been named an assistant coach in the men’s and women’s soccer program at Carson-Newman University. Williams had a highly-decorated career at Tusculum, where she was the Pioneers goalkeeper for four years. Williams holds the school records for shutouts and saves in women’s soccer. She was also selected to the NSCAA All-Region team multiple times, was an All-Conference player as a senior and was named Academic All-District by the CoSIDA.
Mr. Thomas Seth Bragdon ’16 is teaching biology at Jefferson County High School in Dandridge, TN.
Dorothy Smith Clinard ’63 of West Loudon, TN, passed away on August 12, 2016, at The Neighborhood of Tellico Village, which had been her residence for the past two years. Mrs. Clinard’s husband, Turner, served as minister of the Greeneville Cumberland Presbyterian Church from 1952-65. After earning her degree, Mrs. Clinard taught in the Greeneville School System until 1965, when the family moved to Emory, VA. In Virginia, she taught in elementary schools in Marion, VA, and earned a Master’s degree from the University of Virginia. Following the death of her husband in 1980, Mrs. Clinard moved to Talbott, TN, and fulfilled a life-long dream by living in a self-designed log cabin on Cherokee Lake. She lived there for more than 30 years, where she spent her days having her husband’s books published, caring for her beloved pets, hosting get togethers for family and friends and practicing her hobbies of scrapbooking and antique collecting. An expert at decoupage, Mrs. Clinard turned junk into treasure and sold many of her creations at a local artists’ co-op. Her survivors include son and Tusculum alumnus Norman Clinard ’66.
Jean Weems Barnes ’67 ’88 of Greeneville, TN, passed away August 3, 2016. Ms. Barnes was a teacher in the Greeneville City School System, retiring in 2013. Motivated by her love for children and enjoyment of being around others, she continued part time in various capacities in the school system. Ms. Barnes was a member of Greeneville Cumberland Presbyterian Church and served her church in many ways as she grew in her faith. Her greatest enjoyment in life was visiting with her grandchildren. Her survivors include Tusculum alumni, sister, Jane Weems Stroud ’78 and niece-in-law Linda Stroud ’89.
Herbert William Eigenrauch Jr. ’67 of Aberdeen, NJ, passed away on August 4, 2016. After graduating from Tusculum, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and served from 1967 to 1971 in Okinawa and Korea. It was in Korea, that Mr. Eigenrauch met his future wife Kim, before heading back to New Jersey to start a new family. Upon arriving back in the U.S., he began a career that lasted 30 years as a sales manager for Supply King in Neptune, NJ, before he retired in 2004. At the time of his passing, Eigenrauch was a school bus driver with Helfrich & Sons, serving students of Holy Cross Catholic School in Rumson, NJ. Mr. Eigenrauch had a true lust for life, with the simplicities that brought him the most joy. These joys were derived from his hobbies that included gardening, cooking, bird watching, traveling and conversing with friends and family daily, usually about the Mets and Jets or the children along his bus route, whom he adored. He never took his responsibilities to these children and their safety lightly and was proud to be the smiling face that greeted them each morning. In recent years, Mr. Eigenrauch reconnected with his Tusculum friends and created many more shared times and memories to be cherished with them. He was a member of the Tres Dias, an interdenominational Christian leadership movement, which served as the perfect outlet for his guitar playing, where he charitably gave of his time and efforts. In addition, he was an active member of VFW Post 4303, where he frequently spent time with friends. The greatest joy in Mr.Eigenrauch’s life were his grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, the family have asked that donations be made to the Class of 1967 Tusculum College Memorial Scholarship Fund in memory of Herbert W. Eigenrauch, Jr.
Mayme Kay Hampton Banasiak ’01 of Harrison, TN, passed away July 18, 2016. Mrs. Banasiak was a career educator, retiring from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Math Department in 2014. She was an active member of Northminister Presbyterian Church in Chattanooga, where she served as an elder, sang in the choir, served on the Session, volunteered in multiple ministries, served on several committees with the Presbytery of East Tennessee and had a strong passion for Christian education.