SAL1 Charleston RiverDogs

RiverDogs announce opening day roster

Published on April 1, 2007 under South Atlantic League (SAL1)
Charleston RiverDogs News Release


Charleston, SC - Former South Atlantic League All-Star Austin Jackson will be among ten players returning from last season's squad to make the Charleston RiverDogs 2007 opening-day roster, the New York Yankees announced Sunday.

Jackson, who led all SAL hitters with 535 at-bats last season, joins four returning position players in addition to five hurlers from the 2006 pitching staff who will begin this season in Charleston. They combine with 13 players from last season's New York-Penn League champion Staten Island Yankees to comprise the majority of the RiverDogs' roster.

Former Charleston hurler Eric Hacker, who missed the '06 season due to injury, will also be back with the RiverDogs for a second campaign. Before shoulder problems forced him out of action in July 2005, Hacker posted a 5-2 record with a 1.60 ERA in 10 starts for Charleston that season. The Duncanville, Texas native was a SAL All-Star in '05.

Joining Hacker on the '07 pitching staff will be returning RiverDogs Garrett Patterson, Edgar Soto, Gabe Medina, Paul Patterson and Mike Dunn. Dunn played 14 games in Charleston last season as a position player before making the transition to the mound with the Gulf Coast League Yankees.

Garrett Patterson and Soto combined to start 18 games with the RiverDogs in '06, accumulating three wins and two saves between them. Medina and Paul Patterson were late-season additions to last season's staff and appeared in only six games combined.

Other notable pitchers include right-handers Nick Peterson, Tim Norton and Jonathan Hovis, who each put up solid numbers with Staten Island in '06. Peterson, a NY-Penn League All-Star last season, recorded 14 saves in 30 relief appearances with Staten Island. He struck out 53 in 37.1 innings on the way to a 5-3 record and 1.93 ERA.

Norton, the Yankees seventh round draft choice last June out of UConn, led all NY-Penn League pitchers with 15 games started and ranked second with 83 strikeouts. Hovis went 5-1 with a miniscule 1.73 ERA in 25 relief appearances with Staten Island last season.

Other pitchers on the RiverDogs opening-day roster are Staten Island call-ups Luke Trubee, Grant Duff and Angel Reyes; first-year player David Robertson; and GCL call-up Brady Martinez.

Serving primarily as Charleston's leadoff hitter last year, Jackson batted .260 with 37 stolen bases in 134 games. The former eighth round draft choice will be joined in the RiverDogs outfield by fellow returnee Josue Calzado, Staten Island call-ups Seth Fortenberry and Brian Aragon and first-year player Andres Perez.

Calzado spent 12 games with Charleston late in '06, batting .375 with three doubles. The 21-year-old was promoted in August from the Gulf Coast League where he hit .250 in 47 games.

Fortenberry, the Yankees' 11th round draft selection last June from Baylor, hit .268 with 12 stolen bases in 67 games in Staten Island. Aragon batted .237 in 41 games in the NY-Penn League last year.

Perez signed with the Yankees in late August after Baseball America named him the number two prospect in the New England Collegiate League last summer. After playing college ball at Lamar University, Gulf Coast Community College and Stony Brook University, the 22-year-old Manhattan native hit .355 with six home runs in 29 games in the NECL.

Infielders Chris Malec and Eduardo Nunez will each be back with the RiverDogs for a second season. Malec hit .262 in 36 games before being promoted to Tampa last May, while Nunez re-joins Charleston after hitting .227 in 90 games there last season.

Wilmer Pino, a NY-Penn League All-Star who hit .326 in 61 games with Staten Island last season, will make the move to the SAL along with fellow infielders Mitch Hilligoss and Chris Kunda.

Hilligoss, the Yankees sixth-round draft choice from Purdue in '06, hit .292 in 67 games in Staten Island last year. The 21-year-old was named the NY-Penn League All-Star Player of the Game in August. Kunda, a member of the College World Series champion Oregon State Beavers last June, went on to hit .225 in 46 games with Staten Island in '06.

Charleston's opening-day catchers include Jose Gil, who hit .189 in 22 games for the RiverDogs in '06, and Staten Island call-ups Kyle Anson and Brian Baisley. Anson missed all of last season with an injury after hitting .252 in 37 NY-Penn League games in '05. Baisley hit .290 in nine Staten Island games last year.

The RiverDogs begin the '07 season with a four-game series at Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Park against the Greenville Drive April 5-8, followed by another four-game home series against the Asheville Tourists. Tickets for all 70 home games may be purchased at the Riley Park box office, on-line at www.riverdogs.com or by calling (843) 577-DOGS (3647).

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