Belanger Agrees To Terms With Kansas City Royals
6/14/2007 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 14, 2007
HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss pitcher Ryan Belanger has agreed to terms on a free agent deal with the Kansas City Royals, on Wednesday, and will report to Arizona on Friday to begin his professional career. He is the first free agent from the 2007 Golden Eagle squad.
The Golden Eagles had six players, two returning veterans and four incoming signees, drafted in last week's 2007 Major League Baseball First-Year Draft, Wendell Fairley (1st, San Francisco Giants), David Clark (13, Los Angeles Angels), Josh Bileaud (21, Kansas City Royals), Kyle Maxie (28, New York Mets), Tyler Conn (36, Arizona Diamondbacks) and Brian Leach (38, Kansas City Royals).
Belanger, who will sign his contract on Friday in Arizona, has been a two-year member of the Golden Eagle pitching staff and was the team's No. 1 starter this past season. He made 17 appearances, 16 starts and finished with an 8-4 record with a 2.54 ERA in 106.1 innings pitched. He tied with junior Barry Bowden for a team-high 86 strikeouts, walked a team-low 18 batters and opponents hit .243 against him.
A second-team All-Conference USA selection and an NCAA Oxford Regional All-Tournament honoree, Belanger finished with seven or more strikeouts five times this season and was awarded the Conference USA Pitcher of the Week and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association's National Pitcher of the Week for his performance at Houston. He threw a complete-game four hitter, walking one and striking out eight batters. He only allowed two runners to reach second base in the game.
In Conference USA rankings, he tied for No. 1 in batters struck out looking, No. 2 in earned run average, tied for No. 4 in win and batters struck out and was No. 10 in opposing batting average. Southern Miss just completed its 2007 season, finishing 39-23 overall and 14-10 in Conference USA. The Golden Eagles have won at least 39 games a year for five-straight years and have made an appearance in the NCAA Regional Tournament in each year during that stretch as well, and made eight tournament appearances overall. That streak of consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is the 12th-longest in the nation.
