Sean
Trawick, staff writer
posted
on April 20, 2006
While pitcher and outfielder Mike Felix has been getting the most
attention from professional baseball scouts, fellow teammate Tom
King is starting to get more press.
That comes as no surprise after King recently had a 31-game hitting
streak snapped, a Sun Belt single-season record, and broke the Troy
record for doubles in a season with 23.
With his hitless game against UAB, King finished three games shy
of tying the Sun Belt record of 34 games.
King transferred to Troy University after spending the last two
years at the University of South Carolina where he spent most of
his time as a utility player.
King played two seasons at Lake Highland Prep and three seasons
for coaches Sonny Wise and Frank Vida at Apopka High School in Apopka,
Fla., where he helped lead the Blue Darters to the Florida Regional
Championship his senior year.
He was named first team All-District and All-Area his sophomore,
junior and senior years, named second team All-State as a junior
and was named first team All-Metro and All-Region after his junior
and senior years.
King was also named first team All-State and Central Florida Player
of the Year as a senior.
He is currently hitting .467 with seven home runs, 25 doubles, 48
RBI and 50 runs.
King also ranks second nationally in batting average and leads the
conference in hitting, hits and doubles and is second in the conference
in RBI.
Adding to King’s season totals, he is also the only Sun Belt
player to be named Conference Player of the Week more than once.
“Tom’s a heck of a ball player for us,” said Troy
coach Bobby Pierce. “With the type of year he’s having,
professional scouts are starting to take notice.”
Most players might feel a lot of pressure during the season to continue
putting up the kind of numbers King has, but according to coaches
he gets a lot of help.
“I think his teammates help him out by staying loose about
it,” said Pierce. “He’s a team first guy, and
he’s just happy to be helping out the team.”
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