Blane Wagner (center) is surrounded by family, Scotland High School baseball coaches, and St. Andrews University baseball coaches before signing his national letter of intent Monday evening at McCoy Field.
Brandon Hodge | The Laurinburg Exchange
Editor’s note: All stats exclude Scotland baseball’s game against Triton in the state playoffs this past season.
LAURINBURG — Blane Wagner is staying put in Scotland County for the foreseeable future.
While he received two other college offers from schools in Pennsylvania and New York, Wagner, who had a breakout senior season as a pitcher for the Fighting Scots baseball team, ultimately decided to sign with local National Alliance of Intercollegiate Association (NAIA) school St. Andrews University to continue his baseball career Monday evening at McCoy Field.
“I decided that St. Andrews seemed like the best opportunity for me to stay at home and be around family and still have that support of Scotland County,” Wagner said.
Wagner, who also played third base, was one of the top arms for head coach Ricky Schattauer and the Scots last season. He was a team-best 6-2 with a 1.80 ERA and 49 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings pitched on the bump, and as a hitter, produced 13 hits with a .210 batting average and a .342 on base percentage.
But before this past year, Wagner had never pitched at the high school level.
“It kind of shows the young guys that hard work does pay off,” Schattauer said. “When you make it to varsity, you may not get exactly the playing time or exactly the position that you want, but if you continue to work, eventually it’s gonna pay off. And it did for Blane.”
Wagner played primarily as a designated hitter during his junior year. But, according to Schattauer, he worked to improve his hitting during the offseason and also strived to learn more as a pitcher, earning his way into a starting role for the first game of the season.
“From him coming to pitchers workouts, never pitched before since I’ve been here, it kind of took off there,” Schattauer said. “After opening day, him going out there and getting the win, throwing great, it kind of solidified the relationship that we had built and the confidence that we had put into him and that he had in himself.”
The determination and effort that Wagner put in to improve as a hitter and pitcher was a primary reason that St. Andrews head coach Andy Fox wanted him to play for his team.
“I just like him, simply for the fact that he’s a hard-working kid,” Fox said. “He’s a good kid, he’s versatile, he can pitch, he’s got a good swing, so I definitely think his versatility is something that I liked. And I also liked the fact that he was pretty young on the mound, so I definitely think there’s some more in there. I look for some good things out of him in the future.”
Likewise, Wagner felt his ability to play multiple positions was something that he wanted to utilize in college — another reason why he signed with the Knights.
“He (Fox) gave me the opportunity to pitch on the mound and play the field,” Wagner said. “That’s all I ever wanted; growing up, baseball’s been in my life. I wanted to play college baseball, not only as a pitcher or just a position player but as both.”
Wagner is the only player from last season’s Scotland baseball team to sign to play college baseball.
Reach Brandon Hodge at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter at @BrandonHSports.