Transition

SPORTS | NEWS
SEASON TO REMEMBER The UAM baseball
team celebrates after winning the 2016 Great American
Conference championship in Arkadelphia on
May 14. Below, outfielder Corey Wood accepts the
tournament MVP award from GAC Commissioner
Will Prewitt.
GAC Champions!
TLed by a slugging Canadian outfielder and a lock-down pitching
staff, John Harvey’s Boll Weevils are conference champions
THE UAM BASEBALL TEAM IS ON
top of the Great American Conference
after winning the 2016 GAC Tournament
as the number two seed. The Boll Weevils
erased all doubt as to who deserved the
title of GAC champion by routing host
Henderson State University 14-2 in the
tournament finals.
As UAM Magazine went to press, the
Weevils were headed to St. Cloud, Minn.,
for their ssecond-ever appearance in the
NCAA Division II Central Regional
Tournament, with the winner earning an
invitation to the D-II College World Series
in Cary, N.C. UAM made its first NCAA
Tournament appearance in 2014.
It’s been a long road for sixth-year
head coach John Harvey, who took over
a struggling UAM program in 2011 and
transformed it into a winner.
“I can’t begin to describe how proud I
am of this group of guys,” said Harvey. “I
had a feeling it was going to be a special
group from the beginning, but we’re not
done yet. I want to recognize all my former
Weevils. This started with them.”
The Weevils will take a 36-14 record
into the NCAA Tournament and will
showcase one of the best players in Division
II baseball in rightfielder Corey
Wood, a senior from Fredricton, New
Brunswick, Canada. Wood was the GAC
Player of the Year, the GAC Tournament
MVP, and a finalist for national player of
the year. Wood was a one-man wrecking
crew, batting .355 while setting UAM and
GAC records for home runs (22) and runs
batted in (79).
Wood was one of a school-record seven
players named to the All-GAC team. He
was joined on the first team by shortstop
Evan Comeau (.335, 1 HR, 29 RBI),
second baseman Nick Piraino (.352, 21
RBI), and pitcher Braden Chambers (11-
0, 3.23 ERA). Named to the second team
were catcher Travis Steinke (.282, 6 HR,
49 RBI) and pitcher Zach McKnight
(8-2, 4.02 ERA) while left fielder Kevin
Fitzpatrick (.337, 3 HR, 44 RBI) earned
honorable mention honors.
Harvey has built the Weevils with a
roster that includes 21 homegrown Arkansans
as well as five from Canada and
the rest from surrounding states.
In the GAC Tournament championship
game against Henderson State, Wood
blasted a towering grand-slam home run
over the right field scoreboard and narrowly
missed a second grand-slam when
his three-run double bounced off the centerfield
wall as he drove in seven of UAM’s
first eight runs.
Designated hitter Guy Halbert added a
solo home run, and behind the pitching of
Grant Black, UAM took a 14-0 lead before
the Reddies could dent the scoreboard.
Black picked up the win before reliever
Kregg Snook closed out the historic win.
20 UAM Magazine