Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Yorkville’s Kam Yearsley, after record JUCO season, commits to national champion Oklahoma

Transcript

Yorkville’s Kam Yearsley, after record JUCO season, commits to national champion Oklahoma · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Yorkville's Cam Yearsly, after record JUCO season, commits to national
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: champion Oklahoma. Written by Joshua Welgin, this article is being
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Cam Yearsley is chasing a dream, one he's hoping will
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: not end on a college baseball field. His last year
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: must feel like a dream. The former Yorkville Star twenty
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: twenty four Record Newspapers Player of the Year had just
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: thirty seven at bats as a freshman at JUCO John A.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Logan College and downstate Carterville a year ago. But after
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: monster season this spring, Yearsly has made his commitment to
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: NCAA champion Oklahoma. Yearsly, who had originally committed to Missouri State,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: announced he was headed to Oklahoma in a social media
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: post July fourth. Ever since I decommitted, I realized I
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: could go bigger, Yearsly said, Oklahoma reached out to me,
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and it kind of all happened. The recruiting process, it
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: was made for me. I did a bunch of research.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: I knew they were losing a bunch of guys. The
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: expectation was high, and I filled a spot. Yearsly put
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: himself on the radar with quite a spring. He batted
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: point four sixty four with thirty seven homers and ninety
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: nine RBIs in just fifty eight games. He came a
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: home run away from tying the NJCAA single season record
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: of thirty eight homers. Yearsly broke the John A. Logan
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: single season home run record with his twenty fourth on
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: April first, and smashed the program career home run record
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: when he hit his thirty fifth on April seventeenth. Super
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: grateful for it all. It's been a journey, It's been
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: a road, been up and down. Yearsley said. I came
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: from Yorkville thinking I was going to be a top
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: dog in JUCO freshman year, and I ended up not
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: being that. It humbled me a lot and made me
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: mature a lot. At Yorkville, he enjoyed a huge junior year,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: batting point five two six with a one point four
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: to three, seven ops, homers and thirty eight RBIs. He
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: followed that up by batting point four to six two
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: with nine doubles, two triples, thirteen homers and thirty four RBIs.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: As a senior playing at Oklahoma, Yearsly could meet up
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: with former Yorkville teammate Nate Harris, who is a starting
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: pitcher for SEC rival Kentucky. Playing at the highest level
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: of college is what kids dream of. I am chasing
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: a dream. Yearsly said, there is a bigger goal for
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: the team and myself. We all want to do good there.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: We all want to win another national title, and the
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: end goal is to play in MLB. Super blessed to
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: have the opportunity get to see Nate in a few games.
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: It's like we were just in travel ball. Yearsly's baseball
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: future could potentially take another turn this week with the
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: Major League Baseball Draft July eleventh, twelve. He has had
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: some pre draft workouts for MLB clubs and several phone calls.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Yearsly said he'll have a get together with family this
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: weekend to watch the draft. I haven't heard much from teams,
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: but the draft is unpredictable. We're taking it day by day,
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: he said. If it is there, it's there. Not going
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: to make any irrational decisions, just weighing all my options.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: God has a plan for it all right now, Yearsly
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: is just training and lifting, getting his hitting work in.
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: If the draft doesn't go in his way, he could
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: play the rest of the summer in the cape Cod League.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: If they don't need me, they don't need me, he said.
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: I'll find my way onto a team in the second half.