Two-Time Gull Daniel Wright Makes MLB Debut
May 25, 2016 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL)
Newport Gulls News Release
Daniel Wright with the Newport Gulls in 2012
(Newport Gulls, Credit: Newport Gulls Media)
NEWPORT, R.I. - In 2011 and 2012, Daniel Wright toed the rubber at historic Cardines Field in Newport. On Tuesday night, he did the same at Dodger Stadium, debuting as a starting pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds, and becoming the 11th former Gull to play Major League Baseball.
Wright, a native of Bartlett, Tennessee, began his Gulls career in 2011 from Arkansas State University, working out of the bullpen and, later, the starting rotation, en route to a 3-1 record and 2.42 ERA - but his Gulls career was just getting started.
In 2012, he returned to the City-by-the-Sea and dominated Newport's pitching rotation, owning a team-best 6-0 regular season record, picking up a complete-game shutout among his seven starts for Newport. He struck out 42 and walked just 11 in 45 2/3 innings, before leading the Gulls postseason rotation with two masterful performances.
"This is a great place to play," Wright said of Cardines Field in a postgame interview in June of 2012. "The coaches, the players, the atmosphere - all the fans are great - the beaches... everything about Newport is awesome. I'm just doing what I can to help the team get wins, and get a championship."
Wright started the first game of both the quarterfinal round and the NECBL Championship Series in 2012, working 16 innings and striking out 16 batters, with a 1.68 postseason ERA and two victories to show for his starts. His second playoff victory, which was Game One of a two-game Gulls sweep of the Danbury Westerners to win the team's fifth Fay Vincent Sr. Cup, was a masterful 9-inning, 11-strikeout performance at Cardines Field in front of 2,788 fans.
Wright also started the 2012 NECBL All-Star Game, pitching a scoreless frame. His 2012 accolades helped the team win both the NECBL Championship and recognition by Perfect Game USA as the No. 1 overall summer collegiate baseball team in the country, for which the Gulls were awarded Perfect Game's National Championship trophy.
Before his call to the Majors, Wright had split time this spring between Cincinnati's AAA and AA clubs, owning a 10-4 record and microscopic 0.70 ERA between them this spring, walking five and striking out 32 in 34 innings of work. He began the month of May in AA Pensacola as a middle reliever, before a speedy promotion to the starting rotation for AAA Louisville and his eventual call-up to the Reds this week.
In his debut, Wright worked 5 1/3 innings, allowing three earned runs on seven hits, a walk, and four strikeouts vs. the Dodgers.
With the Gulls organization well-established in summer collegiate baseball after 15 seasons in Newport, Gulls alumni are now beginning to reach the Major Leagues at more frequent rates. On April 26, Pat Light, a 2010 Gulls pitcher, made his Major-League debut for the Boston Red Sox, becoming the 10th Gulls alumnus to reach the Majors. Light was preceded by his current Pawtucket Red Sox teammate Chris Dominguez, who has already played at the Major League level with both the Cincinnati and San Francisco organizations.
The Newport Gulls, members of the 13-team New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL), are a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, founded as the Rhode Island Gulls in 1998 in Cranston, R.I., before moving to Newport in 2001. In addition to recruiting, fielding, and developing a team of the nation's top collegiate baseball athletes and attracting 50,000 fans annually to Cardines Field, the predominantly volunteer organization strives to benefit the youth of Newport County via summer camps, reading programs, fundraisers, scholarships, and charitable donations - totaling over $1 million since 2001. The Gulls are six-time champions of the NECBL - the winningest franchise in league history - and were ranked as the overall No. 1 summer collegiate baseball team in the country by Perfect Game USA in 2012.
Images from this story
 Daniel Wright with the Newport Gulls in 2012 (Newport Gulls Media) |
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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from May 25, 2016
- Two-Time Gull Daniel Wright Makes MLB Debut - NECBL
- Two-Time Gull Daniel Wright Makes MLB Debut - Newport Gulls
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