You’d have to try hard to have a better debut Valley League season than Taylor Sandefur did in 2010. Sandefur (redshirt junior, Western Carolina) was named the VBL’s top pitcher after going 7-0 with a 2.26 ERA and racking up 60 strikeouts in 59 and two-thirds innings pitched. But then came the injury in fall ball in 2011, and the subsequent surgery that cost Sandefur his 2012 season.
The 6’1”, 225-pound righthander is still rounding himself back into form. He threw just 13 and two-thirds innings for Western Carolina this spring.
His second go-‘round in Waynesboro this summer will go a long way to determining whether Sandefur can get his game back to where it was three summers ago.
“It’s really huge for me to just throw innings and just keep getting better and come back and have a good summer and repeat what I did back in 2010,” said Sandefur, who looked good in his first start of the season on Wednesday, giving up two runs in five innings of work in a 5-4 Generals’ win over the Rockbridge Rapids.
The key: “I was getting ahead in the count and making guys put the ball in play, dominating the inner half of the plate, and then tunneling my pitches with the fastball and slider away, and really just making guys swing the bat and not giving them any free bags.”
Sandefur said it is a “huge confidence boost” for him to get back out on the mound and give his team some quality innings as a starter.
He’s also playing an important role as a team leader as a returning player.
“The town is a little different, so I’ve been getting back and getting a feel for the town and remembering all the back streets and everything. But it’s still the same community, and a lot of great people support the team, love us, love the team, and love the Generals,” Sandefur said.
More online at www.WaynesboroGenerals.net.
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Chris Graham
