With the college baseball season in the books following an amazing run by Coastal Carolina University to claim the school’s first national championship, the UNCW program is coming off another impressive season as Steven Linkous and Nick Feight finished atop the NCAA statistical leaders.
Linkous, who started all 60 games in the leadoff spot in the batting order, led the nation with a school record 78 runs, while also pacing Division I baseball in runs per game at a clip of 1.3 per game. Linkous was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the 22nd round of the 2016 Major League Baseball Draft this summer and is working through his first professional season for the Boise Hawks in Idaho.
He and former UNCW teammate Jared Gessell both landed in Boise and Michael Lycklama of the Idaho Statesman recently caught up with the duo, who bunk with each other as roommates during road trips.
Read: Former college teammates, roommates pair up with Boise Hawks
Feight, meanwhile, drove in a school record and Colonial Athletic Association record-tying 91 runs to lead the NCAA. The sophomore also led all hitters averaging 1.52 RBI’s per game. The rising junior is competing this summer for the Harwich Mariners in Massachusetts as part of the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League. In 58 at-bats for the Mariners, Feight is hitting .276, with three doubles, three home runs and nine runs batted in.
UNCW currently has nearly a dozen ballplayers competing within professional baseball, including Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitch Chris Hatcher.
Incoming UNCW freshman Riley Zayicek also made headlines this summer after qualifying as one of two high school participants to compete in Minor League Baseball’s Triple A Home Run Derby held at BB&T Ballpark in his hometown of Charlotte. Zayicek represented his alma mater, Lake Norman High School, after grabbing a spot in the competition during a preliminary competition this spring.
