Rockbridge Rapids Name Assistant Coaches For 2010 Baseball Season

            Summer baseball plans are firming up for the Rockbridge Rapids with the signing of three top quality assistant coaches for this season.

            Rapids’ Head Coach, Greg Keaton, and GM, Ken Newman, have contracted with Steve Crosier, Evan Wise and J.R. Blevins to help the Rockbridge collegians this summer.

            “These are all coaches I know,” Keaton said, “and they all have winning baseball backgrounds.  They understand we want players who play the game hard and want to prove themselves as D-1 and pro prospects.”

STEVE CROSIER.   Crosier has an extensive baseball resume and Keaton noted that “the Rapids are going to be very pleased to have someone of Steve’s ability and experience on the sidelines this summer.”

The new assistant currently teaches at Nitro High School, Nitro, WV., and had an extensive playing career in professional baseball.  He worked last summer with the Tampa Bay Rays Gulf Coast minor league team and has coached in a variety of pro and summer leagues prior to that.

           At South Charleston High School (WV), Crosier was head baseball coach for 11 years and led his team to three appearances in State Tourneys with an overall record of 278-118. 

           Crosier graduated from West Virginia State University and has earned two Master’s Degrees from Marshall University.

EVAN WISE.    Also signed to assist Keaton was Evan Wise, currently the pitching coach at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, NC.

            Wise is a graduate of Lenoir Rhyne University and pitched for the Bears in ’07 and ’08.  In ’09, he was an assistant coach at Lenior Rhyne for Head Coach Frank Pait, who is now the skipper at Catawba.

             Last summer Wise was an assistant for the Gastonia Grizzlies of the Coastal Plains League in NC.  Wise says he “can’t wait to get up to Lexington this summer.”  Rapids coach Keaton has slotted Wise as the Rockbridge pitching coach.

J. R. BLEVINS.    Coaching first base for the Rapids in 2010 will be J.R. Blevins, currently a sophomore infielder at the University of South Carolina Sumter for Rapids’ Head Coach, Greg Keaton.

Blevins saw limited at bats in ’09 for the FireAnts but his high school success bodes well for his future.  At Logan High School (WV), he led his team to the West Virginia Class AA championship with a .490 season batting average and was a two time All State player.