King and Cook Come To Terms With Pro Teams
6/7/2003 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
King and Cook Come To Terms With Pro Teams
Hattiesburg, Miss. - Southern Miss baseball outfielders Clint King and Jeff Cook, nicknamed the "Bash Boys" have come to terms and signed contracts to play professional baseball. This marks the first Southern Miss class to have three drafted in the top 10 rounds of the Major League Baseball Draft.
King, a third-round selection of the Chicago White Sox last Tuesday, will report to Great Falls, Mont., to become a member of the Great Falls White Sox (A), a short-season league. Cook, a fifth-round selection of the Arizona Diamondbacks will report to South Bend, Ind., to become a member of the South Bend Silverhawks (A) of the Midwest League, a full-season league.
King, a first-team All-American by USA Today/Baseball Weekley, third-team selection by Collegiate Baseball and a Verizon Third-Team Academic All-American, led the Golden Eagles with a .394 batting average. He also led the team in hits (100), doubles (23), RBIs (77), total bases (196), slugging percentage (.772), tied for the team lead in home runs (23) and was second in runs (68), on-base percentage (.449) and stolen bases (8).
King, a first-team All-Conference USA selection and the Conference USA Tournament Most Valuable Player, led Conference USA in slugging percentage, doubles, total bases, tied for the lead in home runs and was second in batting average, hits and RBIs.
Cook, a first-team All-American by USA Today/Baseball Weekley, third-team selection by Collegiate Baseball and the Conference USA Scholar-Athlete of the Year, led the team in on-base percentage (.450), stolen bases (16), runs (71), tied for the team lead in home runs (23) and hit by pitch (10) and was second on the team in batting average (.374), hits (95), triples (3), RBIs (76), total bases (185) and slugging percentage (.728). Cook, also a first-team All-Conference USA selection and all-tournament team selection, tied for the lead in Conference USA in home runs and was second in runs, total bases and third in RBIs and slugging percentage.
Southern Miss finished 47-16 overall and 23-7 in Conference USA, setting the school record for most wins in a season and the conference record for most conference wins in a season. The Golden Eagles won the Conference USA regular-season title, the tournament championship and hosted the NCAA Hattiesburg Regional Tournament this past weekend, finishing second. They also set the school record for the highest ranking ever, 12th by Baseball America.
The Golden Eagles led the conference in hitting (.318), RBIs (455), runs (497), hits (712), walks (255), sacrifice flies (34), on-base percentage (.396), slugging percentage (.516), doubles (142), home runs (89), total bases (455), saves (19) and ERA (3.54).