The Greensboro College baseball team played one of the toughest schedules ever at GC—and it showed late in the season. The Pride got off to a 10-3 start, but ended the year 15-23. 

First year Head Coach Ken Carlyle had a roster that included 19 new faces. Additionally, the Dixie Conference boasted 5 ranked teams. 

The 2002 team, however, produced more hits, triples, home runs, RBI, and fewer errors than last year’s 19-16 club. The pitching staff also had more complete games, innings pitched, and strikeouts than the 2001 squad. 

GC came away with some big wins, and many noteworthy highlights. The Pride had its second ever win over a Division I school against Mt. St Mary’s College. GC also beat 17th ranked Averett University, and had wins against 20th ranked Brevard College, and 30th ranked Montreat College. 

The team Most Valuable Player award went to Rick Reineke.  He hit .314 and led the team in at-bats, hits, home runs, doubles, slugging percentage, and was second in RBI.  He also made only 1 error all season.  “Rick was one of the most feared hitters in the top baseball conference in the country,” Carlyle said.

GC also got strong play from a number of freshmen. None was more impressive than Kevin Mong. The Pride’s Rookie-of-the-Year batted .318, was second in home runs with 4, and led the team in RBI.  He was also 2-0 off the mound and maintained a 3.5 GPA. “This player has the chance to be at the top of all the hitting records when he graduates from GC,” said Carlyle. 

Sean Soto (.319 batting average) and Jeremy Morrison were also productive in their initial seasons at GC. 

“If these guys can commit themselves to the classroom first, the fundamentals of baseball, making the routine plays—then look back and see what they did to beat these ranked teams—the next few years should be very productive ones for this  program,” said Carlyle.