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Yorkville’s Kam Yearsley closing in on national JUCO home run record: ‘It’s crazy’ · Kendall County News - Shaw Local

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  Speaker 1: Yorkville's Cam Yearsly closing in on national JUCO home run record.
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  Speaker 1: It's crazy. Written by Joshua Welge. This article is being
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  Speaker 1: read by an automated voice brought to you by Everlett.
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  Speaker 1: Cam Yearsley never believed he would have a season quite
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  Speaker 1: like his junior year at Yorkville. What he's doing this
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  Speaker 1: year is unbelievable. A sophomore now at John A. Logan
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  Speaker 1: College in downstate Carterville, Yearsly is one home run away
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  Speaker 1: from tying the national Junior College Athletic Association record. Yearsly
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  Speaker 1: hit his thirty seventh homer on Thursday, my junior year
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  Speaker 1: of high school. I thought I would not come close
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  Speaker 1: to it ever again, and now I'm doing it on
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  Speaker 1: a bigger stage with more home runs. Yearsley said, it's
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  Speaker 1: just an amazing feeling. The hours I put in are
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  Speaker 1: coming out. The lefty hitting Yearsly, the twenty twenty four
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  Speaker 1: Record Newspapers Player of the Year, is batting point five
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  Speaker 1: h nine with few fifty two total extra base hits
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  Speaker 1: and ninety four runs batted in. Incredibly, his thirty seven
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  Speaker 1: home runs have come in just one hundred and sixty
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  Speaker 1: three at bats. He broke the John A. Logan single
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  Speaker 1: season home run record with his twenty fourth on April first,
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  Speaker 1: and smashed the program career home run record when he
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  Speaker 1: hit his thirty fifth on April seventeenth. Yearsly has five
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  Speaker 1: regular season games left to get the national record. Crazy
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  Speaker 1: john A. Logan coach Kyle Surpernott said he is a
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  Speaker 1: great worker, a really good kid. It's just a culmination
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  Speaker 1: of all the work that he has put in. Everything
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  Speaker 1: he hits is hard. I just talked to a scout
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  Speaker 1: and in his system he is in the ninety second
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  Speaker 1: percentile of hard hit average of all of college baseball.
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  Speaker 1: That is just different. With a compact, powerful frame, Yearsly
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  Speaker 1: had a monster junior year at Yorkville, batting point five
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  Speaker 1: twenty six with a one point four to thirty seven ops,
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  Speaker 1: six homers and thirty eight RBIs. He followed that up
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  Speaker 1: by batting point four to sixty two with nine doubles,
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  Speaker 1: two triples, thirteen homers, and thirty four RBIs as a senior.
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  Speaker 1: Yearsly had just thirty seven at bats as a freshman
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  Speaker 1: on a sophomore heavy Johnny Logan team last season, but
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  Speaker 1: he hardly put the year to waste. Last year was
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  Speaker 1: a very big learning experience. Yearsley said, the guys in
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  Speaker 1: front of me worked their butt off to be in
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  Speaker 1: that position, knowing that is what pushed me more. I
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  Speaker 1: was in the weight room a lot, always after practice, practicing,
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  Speaker 1: getting my extra swings in. The little stuff mattered, and
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  Speaker 1: it's finally my time to show it. Sirprenatt said, Yearsly
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  Speaker 1: would have been just fine last year had he been
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  Speaker 1: thrown into the fire, and would have produced likely double
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  Speaker 1: digit home runs, but it took him time to adjust
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  Speaker 1: to the speed of the game, which Yearsly clearly has.
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  Speaker 1: He has just made small adjustments with his bat path,
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  Speaker 1: cleaned it up with his approach, where now he is
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  Speaker 1: in a better position to hit. Sir Pernott said, the
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  Speaker 1: consistency has gone off the charts, his consistent hard contact
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  Speaker 1: you throw in his natural skill set. The bat to
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  Speaker 1: ball skill is through the roof. He is hitting ball
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  Speaker 1: hard that are out of the zone, quality pitcher pitches
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  Speaker 1: that he's able to make guys pay for. Yearsly provided
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  Speaker 1: a harbinger of things to come. The first weekend, he
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  Speaker 1: hit two homers the first game and four over the
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  Speaker 1: first three games. The last weekend of January in Florida.
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  Speaker 1: The first week I realized that it is there. Yearsly said,
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  Speaker 1: seeing how big of a first week I had against
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  Speaker 1: top twenty five competition gave me a huge confidence booster.
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  Speaker 1: Yearsly teased his power potential back to his days at Yorkville.
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  Speaker 1: Throwing himself into the weight room lifting three times a
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  Speaker 1: week has helped him use his body and swing better
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  Speaker 1: to generate power. I would say I have developed more
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  Speaker 1: power and I'm striking out less twenty four this year.
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  Speaker 1: I struck out in high school more than I wanted to.
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  Speaker 1: Yearsley said, now I have more homers than strikeouts and
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  Speaker 1: walks than strikeouts. Those are the qualities I like to see,
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  Speaker 1: especially the walks. As the homers have piled up and
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  Speaker 1: the spotlight of the record has intensified, Surpernon said it
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  Speaker 1: hasn't affected Yearsly. Surpernit is in awe of the picturesque moonshots.
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  Speaker 1: Yearsly has put on the roof of a new indoor
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  Speaker 1: facility beyond the twenty foot tall fence in right field
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  Speaker 1: at John A Logan or the missiles on a line
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  Speaker 1: that barely get eighteen feet off the ground. He is
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  Speaker 1: hitting stuff from his nose to his toes. Sirpernott said
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  Speaker 1: he is hitting fastballs, breaking balls. He is putting his
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  Speaker 1: body in such a good position and launches from there. Gosh, dang,
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  Speaker 1: it's fun to watch. There has been a drum beat
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  Speaker 1: for Yearsly to be considered for the Golden Spikes Award,
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  Speaker 1: given to the nation's top amateur baseball player. Only twice
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  Speaker 1: in the awards forty eight year history has a JUCO
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  Speaker 1: player won it, most recently Bryce Harper in twenty ten.
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  Speaker 1: The likelihood of him receiving it is slim, Sirpernott said,
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  Speaker 1: but just to be in the conversation is unbelievable. The
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  Speaker 1: season Yearsly haz Ed has also put him in the
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  Speaker 1: conversation to be selected in this summer's MLB draft. Right
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  Speaker 1: now has a contract to play this summer in the
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  Speaker 1: Cape Cod League, a rarity for JUCO players. He's committed
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  Speaker 1: to play next collegiately at Missouri State. I try not
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  Speaker 1: to think about the draft too much, but it's hard
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  Speaker 1: not to, Yearsley said. The year I am having like
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  Speaker 1: in high school. I'm trying not to get too big,
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  Speaker 1: staying humble and letting God take his role.