The Texas Collegiate League is pleased to announce the 2016 All-Star roster. This year the All-Star game will be hosted by the Acadiana Cane Cutters on July 19th at Fabacher Field in Youngsville, Louisiana.

The TCL will be utilizing a new format to decide the teams. The head coach from the Brazos Valley Bombers, Curt Dixon, and the head coach from the Acadiana Cane Cutters, Austin Flores, will be drafting the players that have been previously chosen by the coaches of the every team.  

The All-Star rosters will be compromised of representatives from all five teams in the TCL. The Bombers, who won the first-half title and are coming off their third consecutive League title, lead all teams with 13 players selected for the All-Star game, five of which will be starters. In terms of starters, the Victoria Generals will put the most players on the field at the beginning of the game with seven of their nine representatives selected to start.

The starting options at first base are Zach McGuire of the Bombers and Christian Caudle who plays for the Generals. McGuire is the TCL leader in home runs with five and is tied for second in the league in RBIs trailing only his teammate and fellow All-Star selection, Alex Samples. Caudle entered the voting period with an average of .297, 14 runs scored and 15 RBIs.

At second base, the Acadiana Cane Cutters’ Cobie Vance and the Woodlands Strykers Noah McGowan. Vance’s average of .340 is good for 3rd in the TCL and his 18 RBIs have him tied for the team lead with Trey Jimmerson. Entering the break McGowan is hitting .356 with three home runs and a team leading 23 RBIs.

Third base will be manned by either the Bombers Alex Samples or the Generals Levi Zents. Samples is the current league leader in hits, runs scored, RBIs and stolen bases. Zents has been a force in the Generals lineup by having a .286 batting average with 16 runs and 11 stolen bases.

At shortstop  the starters will be Hunter Wilson for the Bombers and Pedro Barrios from the Generals. Wilson is hitting .316 for the Bombers to go along with 14 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. The Generals shortstop, Barrios, has put together a stat line of 17 runs and 13 RBIs  on top of his .347 batting average.

Acadiana’s Trenton Buckhorn and Victoria’s Sam Wheatley were chosen as the designated hitters that can be selected by Coach Dixon and Coach Flores. Buckhorn hit at a clip of .293 with 14 runs and 12 RBIs off of 27 hits. Wheatley hit two home runs and eight RBIs with a .289 average.

Starting behind the plate for either team will be Dom Bifano of the Cane Cutters or Spencer Hemphill of the Bombers. Bifano has hit for a .227 average with four RBIs coming off of 10 hits. The Bomber backstop, Hemphill, hit for a .232 average to go with a home run and nine RBIs off of 13 hits.

For the outfield starters the coaches will be able to select from Bryce Brandl and Nick Anderson of the Generals, Braden Zarbnisky and Coll Stanley of the Strykers, Trey Jimmerson from the Cane Cutters and John Grimsley of the Bombers.

Bryce Brandl is a second time all-star after starting last year’s game as well. He got to this point this season by hitting for a .282 average with 11 runs scored and 11 RBIs off of 22 hits. The Cane Cutters’ Trey Jimmerson has been able to hit for a .337 average, currently good for 4th in the TCL, and he has driven in 18 RBIs with a home run.

Rounding out the bench players will be infielders Kyle Mendenhall, Cane Cutters, Dane Geisler, Cane Cutters, Matthew Guidry, Cane Cutters and Anthony Herrera of the Bombers,. Backup catchers will be Tanner DeVinny of the Texas Marshals and Josh Russell of the Strykers. The outfielders coming off the bench are a pair of Bombers in Logan Bottrell and Riley Shaefer.

The two starting pitchers selected for the game are the Bombers Willy Amador and the Generals Michael Brawner. In the first half of the season Amador compiled a 4-0 record in four starts with a 2.14 ERA in 21 innings pitched. He struck out 36 batters which has put him in a second place tie in the TCL along with his opposing pitcher, Michael Brawner. In addition to the 36 strikeouts, Brawner registered a 2.15 ERA and a 5-0 record in 37.2 innings of work appeared in 10 games while starting six of those games.

The rest of the starting pitchers will be rounded out by Chad Romere for the Strykers, Carlisle Koestler, Cane Cutters, Garrett Hofstad, Bombers, Danny Garrett, Marshals, MacGregor Hines, Bombers, Kaleb Roper, Cane Cutters, and Cameron Copeland, Marshals. Relief pitchers selected to represent their teams in the All-Star game Riley McCauley, Bombers,  Ryan Hill, Marshals, Steven Dressler, Bombers, Zac Rogers, Cane Cutters, Riley Cooper, Generals, Hunter Robichaux, Cane Cutters, J.C. Keys, Cane Cutters, and Braxton Smith, Generals.

In addition to being selected as an infielder, Anthony Herrera was also selected to represent the Bombers as a  relief pitcher in the All-Star game. While playing the field Herrera compiled a .362 average with 14 stolen bases and 13 RBIs, but while on the mound for the Bombers he was able to record five saves with eight appearances and 12 strikeouts in nine innings pitched.