BROWN BOUND FOR BEREA

Corbin senior Chad Brown will play baseball at Berea College next season. Brown signed with the Mountaineers last week.

Brown said he connected with Berea College during a camp at the University of Kentucky last year and followed up when Corbin High School Coach Rob Ledington gave the seniors some information about the school.

“Coach (Todd) Morris called me during last Thanksgiving weekend and I went up there for a practice two months later. After that they said they wanted me to play, so I sent in an application to the school and got accepted,” Brown said.

“We’re thrilled to have Chad become a member of our program. We think he will be able to add depth to our pitching staff as soon as next spring,” Morris said. “He has a lot of upside on the mound, that we feel will translate well from our conditioning program this fall and winter.”

“We are always excited to add players to our program that come from talented and tradition rich programs like Corbin,” Morris said. “We think Chad will be an outstanding addition both on the field and in the classroom.”

Brown said, “Baseball has always been part of my life, ever since I started sports. It was the first sport I ever played.”

Brown said he tried other sports like basketball, football and soccer, but always liked baseball the best. “When it came down to waiving out the sports and picking the one that I wanted to play, I knew baseball was my sport,” he said.

After breaking an ankle his sophomore year, Brown decided to give up football and concentrate on baseball. “I didn’t want to risk not being able to play baseball,” Brown said.

Brown has pitched in eight games this year with a 2-5 record. He has 29 strikeouts and has only walked 13 batters. He has a 3.48 ERA before his complete game shutout, two hitter against the Bellevue Tigers Saturday.

“That was the closest to a no-hitter and perfect game I have had until the fourth inning,” Brown said.

On the season he has pitched 34.1 innings gave up 35 hits and 33 runs.

He has a .842 fielding percentage with 14 putouts and six assists while on the mound. He only has three errors recorded against him this season.

Brown is primarily a pitcher for the Redhounds, but can also play first and third base.

Brown will pitch for the Mountaineers, “but they want try me out for some of the infield positions because they want me to hit,” he said.

Jumping to a new level, Brown will have to get used to another style of coaching. He has been happy to play for Ledington. “I like him as a coach, he does his best to help his players and gives us his all,” Brown said.

“He really knows his baseball and pushes us to be the best that we can be,” Brown said. “He also wants to make sure we are better people on and off the field.”

Although he is looking forward to college his memorable moments have been playing with his senior teammates this year. “The greatest moment could be winning the region,” Brown said.