San Jacinto College-North has announced the signing of Memorial’s Dylan Adamek and Jacob Johnson.

Adamek and Johnson become the fourth and fifth Maverick players signed by schools that compete in the Region 14 Conference South Zone.

With San Jac losing three of their top hurlers to graduation, a group that helped the Gators lead the South Zone in lowest ERA at 3.48; the program has likely been scouring the Houston area for potentially sturdy arms.

Adamek, a righthander, certainly could fill that bill with the way he pitched in the regular season as well as the postseason.

A unanimous First Team All-District choice by the 22-5A coaches this spring, Adamek was 6-2 overall on the mound and 5-1 in district, his only blemish being a loss in a relief assignment. Then in the postseason, he went 2-0 with a save, having a factor in all three Memorial victories against either Kingwood or Brazoswood. With Memorial facing elimination against Brazoswood, it was Adamek to the rescue. He weaved a complete game six-hitter in a 6-4 Game 2 win.

Adamek’s district ERA was a crisp 0.42, co-leading 22-5A in strikeouts, while allowing just two earned runs in 33 innings. Overall, his ERA was every bit as crisp at 1.30 in 48 innings of work. He surrendered nine earned runs, struck out 66 and gave up just 25 hits in that span.

While scouts talked most about his pitching, if they were on hand for the Brazoswood Area championship series, he made the scouts change the topic to hitting.

After making outs his first two plate appearances, Adamek finished his high school career in sizzling fashion, reaching base six of his final eight plate appearances. Over four at-bats during Games 1 and 2, Adamek doubled, doubled and tripled, driving in runs with all three extra-base hits. He somehow topped that by driving in three RBIs in Game 3 with a walk, single and a sacrifice fly. With him and his teammates trailing 5-0 in a do-or-die Game 3, Adamek single-handedly accounted for three come-from-behind runs as Memorial rallied to tie the contest at 5-5 in an eventual 6-5 loss.

Although Johnson was a First Team All-District selection in the outfield this past season, Memorial was hoping he would be one of the stoppers on the mound until an injury during the first week of workouts, torpedoed those hopes. But by April, Johnson had made tremendous strides, collecting two of Memorial’s five second-round victories en route to the district crown.

No doubt the Gators like the idea of a lefthander who has the potential to throw in the low 90s.

But Johnson proved to be a big lift offensively for the Mavs, hitting .378 for the 14-game district slate with 17 hits in 45 at-bats.

Overall, Memorial’s three-hole hitter was 19-of-50 for a .388 batting average.It won’t be unusual for ex-Mavericks to be on the Gators roster. This past season, 2006 Memorial graduates Chris Dickerson and Colin Lippert played for San Jac.

Former San Jacinto Gator pitcher Jared Wells made his Major League Baseball debut on Saturday with the San Diego Padres. After compiling nine saves this year at AAA Portland, Wells received the summons Thursday, May 22 to join the Padres staff. 

Although the Cincinnati Reds defeated Wells' Padres 7-2 in front of 27,499 screaming fans at Petco Park in San Diego, he was able to prevent the Reds from crossing home plate. He started his 21-pitch debut as a Padre by retiring the first two batters he faced. He went on to walk Bronson Arroyo and give up a single to left to Ryan Freel; however, he recovered to retire the fifth and final Red he faced to close out the inning. 

Much like his MLB debut, Wells knows how to turn an ugly situation into something very positive and rewarding. It started with his college career. Wells was the starting quarterback for the 2000 East Texas Baptist University football team. Wells' football career was abruptly halted when he suffered a devastating knee injury, tearing the anterior cruciate ligament as well as other ligaments in his right knee, in the fifth game of the 2000 season. 

After surgery and rehabilitation, Wells landed on his feet, literally, transferring to Tyler Junior College and earning a spot on the Apache baseball team. Wells had modest numbers at Tyler. He was 2-4 with an ERA of 5.22 in 11 appearances, eight of those were starts. After Tyler decided to downsize their program to non-scholarship status, Wells decided to transfer to San Jacinto. 

Once he arrived at San Jac, Wells flourished. He helped lead the Gators to the NJCAA Division I World Series in Grand Junction, Colo., and he started the championship game which San Jac lost. Earning a 13-2 record with an earned run average of 2.75 at San Jacinto, Wells, a 6-foot-4 right-hander, was signed by the Padres organization.  

Laboring through the Padres' minor league system for 642 innings over the past six years took Wells to places such as Eugene, Ore., Ft. Wayne, Ind., and Lake Elsinore, Calif., where he was named the California League Pitcher of the Year in 2005. Wells' career began to take off and show its potential in June 2007 when he was converted from a starting pitcher to a reliever for the Padres' top minor league affiliate, the Portland (Ore.) Beavers, of the Pacific Coast League (AAA). 

He turned in a 2-1 record with an earned run average of 2.93 in 37 appearances out of the Beaver bullpen in 2007. 

The former Gator is expected to settle into his role as a middle inning relief pitcher for the Padres and will be evaluated as a possible replacement for closer Trevor Hoffman.   

The San Jacinto College Gators quest for yet another national title came to a stop last week as San Jac dropped two of their last four ballgames at the Region XIV Tournament in Mt. Pleasant. That paved the way for conference foe Alvin to try for a shot at national junior college baseball supremacy.  

San Jac took the field against Panola College in their first game of the tourney and ousted the Ponies 11-4 heading into the second day of play. On Sunday, San Jac cruised to their second consecutive tournament victory against Angelina College 7-2 which put them into a favorable position going into their highly touted match up against Alvin Junior College Monday.  

In the contest against the Dolphins, extra innings were needed to decide the game, but Alvin came out on top 7-6 after a poor defensive showing from the Gators ball club. With six errors coming from the defense of the Gators, Alvin seemed to capitalize on every blunder leaving San Jac pitching vulnerable to a highly talented Dolphins offense.  

“They won the game to their credit,” said Assistant Baseball Coach DJ Wilson of the San Jacinto College Gators. “We didn’t play well defensively in the tournament at all and we didn’t do the things we needed to do to earn a right to go to the junior college World Series.” 

Tyler Dyer took the ball in the game against Alvin as he allowed only one run on five hits as the other four runs were forced onto the scoreboard via the error. The offense for the Gators also stranded nine base runners in the extra innings loss to the Dolphins.  

In the decisive game four against Wharton, San Jac dropped the contest losing 5-4 which would have sent them into a one-game playoff against Alvin for the bid to play in Grand Junction at the JUCO World Series. Wharton came out and put a 3-spot on the scoreboard in the top of the first frame and let their pitching do the rest as their starter Trey Ross went seven and two-thirds innings giving up one run on four hits and striking out four. The offense for the Gators in the ballgame crossed one runner over the dish in the first, second, fifth and, eighth innings of the game, but never found their groove as they did before in almost every game of the regular season.  

“We did fall short of our ultimate goal,” said Wilson. “We did obtain one of our three goals and that was a conference championship and we are proud of our kids for that. We had 40-plus wins and that’s hard to do. We are proud of what they did with their effort on the field and in the classroom and they represented San Jacinto College well.” 

Rounding out the season, left fielder Kris Miller lead the way on offense as his .412 batting average was tops on the squad with Miller also taking the award on the team for most runs batted in with 92.  

From the mound, Chris Corrigan lead the squad in wins with nine with Kevin Angelle, Tyler Dyer, and Jaime Bagley all tied for second on the club with seven wins a piece.  

The San Jacinto College Gators went into Tuesday with a 2-1 record at the Region 14 Junior College Baseball Tournament with impressive wins over Panola College and Angelina Junior College. Their only loss came at the hands of the Alvin College Dolphins, as San Jac dropped the Monday night matchup 7-6 in 10 innings of play.   

“Alvin is a very good team,” said Gators Assistant Coach DJ Wilson. “We just played a bad defensive game in that one (against Alvin).”  

In the Gators first game of the tournament, Tom Arrington’s squad scored 11 runs on 10 hits with left fielder Kris Miller, right fielder Jeremy Barfield, and second baseman Devin Shines all contributing to the double digit scoring affair as each blasted home runs against the Panola Ponies.  Pitcher Jaime Bagley went seven innings in the contest and surrendered one earned run in the tourney opener.   

In the 7-2 victory over the Angelina Roadrunners Sunday, ace Chris Corrigan went 8 2/3 innings and recorded the second win of the tournament for his squad giving up only two runs on five hits while striking out five.    Rick

McGraw and Devin Shines both notched doubles with Quentin Luquette recording the only three- bagger of the game. Catcher Greg Alcazar also contributed from the dish as he went 1-3 from the plate with a pair of runs batted in.
 

San Jacinto's Chris Corrigan thoroughly overwhelmed a hard-hitting AC lineup, giving up just six singles over 8 2/3 innings to help the Gators knock off the Roadrunners 7-2 Sunday in Mount Pleasant.

Corrigan pitched shutout ball until the ninth, never allowing the 'Runners to string together consecutive hits the entire game. The San Jac right-hander struck out four and walked three while keeping AC hitters off the base paths for much of the game's duration: The Roadrunners didn't get a man to third base until the final at-bat.

Jason Gurka started on the mound for AC and pitched well enough to win against any other team. Gurka left in the seventh having struck out nine Gators in the first five innings – but he and his teammates trailed 6-0 at that point, with only four of those San Jac runs considered earned. The Gators took advantage of three AC errors, including one in the first inning that led to two runs when Gurka should have been able to get out of the inning unscathed.  

San Jacinto's Kris Miller singled between a pair of Gurka strikeouts, but a dropped fly ball extended the inning and led to a 2-0 Gator lead after a Quentin Luquette triple. Luquette would score three more times for San Jac; teammate Rick McGraw finished 3-for-5, and Gregg Alcazar drove in a pair of runs with a sac fly and a single.

AC's only runs came in the ninth following a Matt Thielepape walk and a Keith Prestridge single. Jake Rowell drove in Thielepape with an RBI groundout, and Mark Serna plated Prestridge with a single to chase Corrigan. But San Jac closer Michael Johnson struck out Joey Latulippe to end the game and send AC into the loser's bracket.

The San Jacinto College baseball team, the Region XIV South champions, is the top seed from the South at the Region XIV tournament that will be held in Mount Pleasant, Texas, on May 10-14.

Ranked seventh in the nation by the National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA), and fifth by Perfect Game USA, San Jac (42-12) will battle Panola at 5 pm on Saturday, May 10. Panola is the No. 4 seed out of the East.

"Finishing first in the Region XIV South zone was a great accomplishment for the team," said seventh-year head coach Tom Arrington. "Being mentally prepared for the tournament is key. We are good physically, but potentially playing four to six games in four days at the tournament can be demanding."

San Jac is led offensively by sophomore outfielder Kris Miller, who is hitting .415. Miller's 18 home runs lead the team, and are eighth best in the nation. He is also the national leader in RBIs with 87.

As a team, San Jac is hitting .348, which ranks 23rd in the nation.

On the mound, San Jac has relied on veteran pitchers Kevin Angelle and former Humble High standout Chris Corrigan. The duo has combined for a 15-2 record and recorded 135 strikeouts. Angelle owns an ERA of 3.06, while Corrigan owns a mark of 4.66.

San Jac is 8-2 in its last 10 games, including seven straight wins to end the regular season. SJC will be vying for its sixth trip in seven years to the NJCAA World Series, May 24-31, 2008, in Grand Junction, Colo.

For a complete Region XIV tournament bracket, and to listen to all San Jac tournament games, visit the Texas Sports Radio Network (TSRN) Web site at www.tsrnsports.com.

For more information on the San Jacinto College baseball program, visit www.sanjac.edu/athletics, or call 281-459-7613.

With the three game sweep of Wharton County, the fifth-ranked San Jac Gators clinched the 2008 Region XIV South Conference Championship.  The sweep extended San Jac's current winning streak to sven games.

The Gators next game will be in the NJCAA Region XIV/South District Tournament.  The tournament is played from May 10 – May 14 in Mount Pleasant at Northeast Texas Community College.  The winner advances to the Junior College World Series in Grand Junction, CO.

"I wasn't trying to do too much," the former San Jac starter said Monday. "[I was] just trying to throw my sinker down-and-away, and then mix in some breaking balls. That's what I was able to do -- move the fastball in and out a little bit, and that worked pretty good for me."

Albers, who was acquired from Houston as part of the five-player haul for Miguel Tejada, was in the running for a rotation slot all the way until the last week of Spring Training. Baltimore manager Dave Trembley eventually opted for Brian Burres, which turned Albers and his sinkerball into the team's best option for long-relief work.

That wasn't the scenario in his season debut, but Trembley turned to him anyway. Albers came in with two runners on base and a four-run deficit in the sixth inning, and promptly escaped on a fielder's choice and a caught stealing. He got four more groundouts over the course of the night, prompting Trembley to mention him off-the-cuff in his postgame remarks.

"You've got to like the way Albers pitched," he said. "That's what we're looking for out of him."

The Orioles also acquired Luke Scott, Dennis Sarfate, Troy Patton and Mike Costanzo in the Tejada trade, but they'll have to wait for contributions from the latter two players. Patton is on the disabled list while recovering from a season-ending shoulder operation, and Costanzo is beginning the year at Triple-A Norfolk.

Albers, who had never been part of an Opening Day before, said that he enjoyed the atmosphere. The 25-year-old also said that he expected to be nervous, but was able to control himself in front of a capacity crowd at Camden Yards.

"I know what nerves can do to me," he said shortly after Baltimore's 6-2 loss to Tampa Bay. "I wanted to come out and just try to relax as much as I can, feel as comfortable as I can on the mound and just go after guys.

"Once they called me in, I felt pretty comfortable just coming out there and throwing strikes."

Albers threw 19 of his 26 pitches for strikes and swiftly mowed down Tampa Bay's lineup. He got four straight groundouts at one point -- two in the seventh inning and two in the eighth -- from the heart of the road team's batting order, and ended his outing by striking out Eric Hinske, who had hit a solo home run off Guthrie earlier in the game.

And perhaps most importantly, Albers got his feet wet with his new team and earned some trust from his manager.

"That was probably the best I've seen Albers with his location all spring," said Trembley. "He didn't throw a ball above the thighs. Everything was down and his breaking stuff was sharp and late."

"It's always nice to get called out," added Albers. "You've got to be ready all the time, but it's definitely nice to get in there, know that I can throw strikes and do well. Hopefully, I can keep it up. It's a long season."

Spencer Fordin is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.

Kevin Angelle earned the win for San Jacinto (29-6, 13-3 Region XIV) after going six innings, including five scoreless frames to open the game. Spencer Cuniff went the final two innings for the save.

San Jac, ranked fourth in the latest NJCAA poll and fifth in the current Perfect Game poll, has won 13 of their last 14 games. 

The San Jacinto Gators begin the season as the No. 8 team in the nation in the National Junior College Athletic Association baseball poll, which was released Friday. The poll includes all other participants from last year’s JUCO World Series.

Today, the Gators open the 2008 season against Temple. Since the 1997 season, the Gators have only missed making the JUCO World Series twice.

Coach Tom Arrington's team opens the campaign as the third-ranked junior college team in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper preseason poll, returning 18 players from a squad that finished 46-16 and made its sixth national tournament appearance in eight years in 2007.

-Houston Chronicle