Scranton’s very own, Jake McCarthy has been named to the USA Baseball Team. Congratulations, Jake! In case you’re a first time reader, we’re all NEPA guys. In an effort to never forget where we came from, we always cover NEPA stand outs.
The USA Baseball team will play a series of warm up games against the Coastal Plain League. They will then host a series that will match them against Chinese Taipei and Cuba from June 27-July 7. Jake McCarthy, a UVA sophomore out of Scranton, Pennsylvania was taken by the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 2015 MLB draft.
VirginiaSports.com: “Jake McCarthy is batting .344 with five homers and 35 RBI while playing in all 54 of UVA’s games this season. He also owns a league-leading seven triples as well as 11 doubles. He is 27-for-29 in stolen bases this year, the third-most steals in a season at UVA and most since 2008. It ranks ninth nationally this year.
After hitting .291 in his first 25 games this year, McCarthy is batting .393 in the last 29 games, which is tied with Adam Haseley and Cameron Simmons for the team lead in that span. He is the reigning ACC Player of the Week after going 12-for-21 in four games last week, including 9-for-16 in the series at Georgia Tech.”
McCarthy is the 11th Virginia player to earn an invitation from a USA Baseball National Team. Other Cavaliers named to the USA Baseball National Team: Bill Narleski (1986), Seth Greisinger (1996), Ryan Zimmerman (2004), Sean Doolittle (2005-06), Mark Reynolds (2006), Jacob Thompson (2007), Branden Kline (2011), Nathan Kirby (2014), Matt Thaiss (2015) and Connor Jones(2015). Kirby and Jones later withdrew before competing with the team.