Harris Gets First Promotion

In his first summer with the Mets, former Knight, RJ Harris received his first promotion late Sunday Evening. Harris will join the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets Short Season A ball Team. Harris had been playing with the Mets Rookie League Squad, the Kingsport Mets.

Harris decided to forgo his senior season in order to sign with the Mets after being selected in the 14th round. RJ plans on returning in the off season to continue pursuing his degree.

Harris Continuing To Impress In His First Professional Season

RJ Harris has proven that his 2009 season as a Knight was certainly no fluke. Harris has his average over .300 with 5 home runs. His .302 batting average currently ranks him 13th in the Appalachian League.

The Knights have several outfielders who will try and replace the production left behind by the early departure of Harris. Most notable is Sam Houston State transfer, Justin Keithley. Keithley hit .305 with 11 doubles, 4 home runs, and 32 RBI in 2009 for the Bearcats. Also expected to compete for a spot in the outfield is Anthony Washington(Sr), Dewitt Knight(Jr), Justin Coats(Sr), and Jeff Sakowski(Sr).

Former Knights Leading The Aggie Baseball Program

Former Knights, Rob Childress and Matt Deggs, are leading the Texas A&M baseball program back to national prominence.Childress was a Knight from 1986-1990. In that time, he was twice named an all-conference pitcher. Northwood won an NAIA conference championship during his career and was runner-up at the regional tournament once. After graduating in 1990, Childress began his coaching career at Texarkana College, under current Arkansas head coach Dave Van Horn. Following two seasons as an assistant at Texarkana, Childress returned to Northwood where he spent two years as an assistant under current NU athletic director Pat Malcheski. After leaving Northwood for a second time, Childress made stops at Texarkana College(head coach), Northwestern State College(pitching coach), University of Nebraska(pitching coach), and finally Texas A&M(head coach).

Childress graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration from Northwood in 1990 and earned a master's degree of science from East Texas State (now TAMU-Commerce) in 1994. He and his wife Amanda (A&M Class of 1992) have a daughter, Hannah, 12, and a son Maxwell, 6.Deggs and Childress have similar backgrounds. Both natives of Texas, the connection began in 1993 when Deggs, a native of Texas City (same hometown as current NU assistant, Bobby Garza), played for Childress, while he was on the Knights coaching staff. Additionally, they spent two years together on Dave Van Horn's staff at Northwestern (La.) State in 1996 and 1997, and both served a stint as the head coach at Texarkana Junior College. One of only a handful of coaches to win both a Big 12 and an SEC title, Deggs spent three seasons at Arkansas as the hitting coach and recruiting coordinator for Van Horn from 2003 to 2005.

Deggs began his college playing career at Alvin Junior College(1991-92) before transferring to Northwood(1993-94). He played professionally for three years for the Mobile (Ala.) Baysharks and the Tennessee Tomahawks, two of which were spent as a player/coach under former Boston Red Sox manager Butch Hobson and former Red Sox catcher Mike O' Berry. Deggs is married to the former Kathy Saldua (A&M Class of `94). The couple have a son, Kyler (9), a daughter, Klaire (5) and a daughter, Khloe (3).

Childress and Deggs just completed their fourth year at A&M. Named the Big 12's Coach of the Year by his peers in 2008, Childress guided the Aggies to 46 wins, their first regular-season championship in nine years and the first back-to-back NCAA regional championships in school history. Along the way A&M set a new school and Big 12 record by winning 16 straight conference games. After just one season at the helm, Childress orchestrated the biggest turnaround in NCAA Division I baseball. His 2007 team finished 48-19, winning 23 more games than in 2006, in addition to claiming the NCAA College Station Regional championship, a berth in the Super Regionals and the school's first Big 12 title since 1999.The future is bright for the Aggie program as long as these two Knights continue to lead the way.

Knights Field Renovation Complete

Knights Field has a great new look after field renovations were completed late last week. The field improvements include a new outfield and a new skin on the infield. The new surface will be ready for fall workouts starting September 9th.

Harris Finding His Stroke

Former Knight, RJ Harris recently hit his third home run for the Kingsport Mets. Harris has been hot of late raising his average above .280. Harris was the 14th round pick of the Mets in 2009 after leading Northwood to it's second straight RRAC Title.

Texas Three Step Lead Oilers to First Playoff Win

July 31, 2009 - (Brockport) - The Alfred Oilers made their first trip to the playoffs since Athletes in Action became a member of the New York Collegiate Baseball League today, making the drive up to Brockport for the second straight day. Yesterday they needed a win to make it into the playoffs, today they needed a win to get off in the right direction and they handed the ball to Northwood righty Josh Matthews. The Oilers helped themselves out, scoring right away in the first 3 innings. The big blow came off the bat of third baseman Michael Mosby, who came up with a runner on first base and two out. He took a 1-0 fastball over the left field fence to put Alfred ahead 4-0. Brockport battled back though, pushing 3 runs across in t he 5th and 6th innings, leaving little room for error. In the top of the 7th, a costly dropped third strike and later an error by the pitcher on a pick off play allowed Scott “Fish” Haddock to go all the way to third base to lead off the inning. A sac fly by Dan Perkins then drove him in, and the Oilers had themselves a 5-3 lead.

Garrett Randle, also of Northwood, came in to pitch the 8th inning, and after giving up a lead off walk, got clean up man Marcus Way to fly out to left and then struck out Ryan Nokelby. After a 7 pitch at bat, Randle picked the runner off first base and ended the Brockport rally. Randle stayed in for the first batter in the 9th inning, but after giving up a walk was quickly pulled. Robert Anders came in to close the game out, completing the Texas-3 step, and had a perfect outing to end the game. He got the first batter he faced, Robert LaRusso, to ground into a 5-4-3 double play. He then got a ground out to end the game.

The win was the first victory for an AIA team in the playoffs in the NYCBL, and puts them ahead in the 3 game series 1-0. Game 2 of the series will be played tomorrow night (Saturday) at ASC Field at Alfred State College at 5 o’clock, and can be heard on Teamline around 4:55 PM. Game 3 will be played, if necessary, at Brockport at 5 PM.

Article provided by the Alfred Oilers Baseball Club