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Greenville
graduate Tripp Davis recently signed with the Kansas City Royals.
Davis is the son of Mark and Gretchen Davis. Photos courtesy of
njithighlanders.com
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Greenville grad
signs with Kansas City
njithighlanders.com
KANSAS CITY, MO—The Kansas City Royals signed 2013 NJIT graduate Tripp
Davis to a free agent contract this week, Royals scout Jordan Wyckoff
confirmed.
Wyckoff reported that Davis, who was a four-year left-handed ace
starting pitcher for the Highlanders from 2010 until the end of the
2013 season late last month, flew to Arizona on Thursday morning and
completed the paperwork to turn pro with the Royals organization.
Davis is at the Royals' Spring Training facility in Surprise, AZ, where
he will take part in orientation and minicamp for three days before
being assigned to one of the Royals' minor league teams for the
remainder of the 2013 season.
The Ohio native joins his former NJIT classmate and fellow pitching ace
Mark Leiter, Jr. in reaching the pro ranks this summer. Leiter was
selected by the Philadelphia Phillies organization in the 22nd round of
last week's annual First-Year Player Draft.
Davis completed his career as NJIT's Division I career leader in wins
(19), innings pitched (382.1), and games started (58), while ranking
second to Leiter in career strikeouts (309). Davis was the team leader
in innings pitched each of the last three seasons and he led or shared
the team lead for wins in all four of his seasons, with a high of six
in his sophomore season when he finished 6-6.
His first college win marked him as someone to watch, as he outpitched
Bradley junior Patrick Cooper in a 4-2 win in Florida after the
authoritative publication, Baseball America, had ranked Cooper as the
60th best college prospect in the country for the 2010 Major League
Baseball draft (Cooper is currently a starting pitcher in the Class AA
Eastern League, two steps below the major leagues).
Davis was first-team All-Great West Conference following his sophomore
and junior seasons and he was a second-team New Jersey College Baseball
Association honoree following his sophomore season, when he pitched a
school-record 107.1 innings and was named to the All-Great West
Conference Tournament team for his win in an elimination game. He
pitched a complete game in that one, his school Division I-record sixth
of the season. As a junior, he was 5-2 with a career-best 3.29 earned
run average and an opponents' batting average of just .239.
He did not win any season playing honors as a senior in a year that saw
him finish with a 5-7 record and an ERA of 4.72. Davis made one of his
worst starts of 2013 in the opening game, allowing seven runs in six
innings in a loss to North Carolina Central. After that, he endured a
remarkable run of bad luck with little hitting support and crucial
errors made behind him in the field. He made four straight starts in
which he lasted at least six innings and allowed either zero or one
earned run, but got just three no-decisions and a loss to show for it.
The loss in the stretch was six innings with one earned run at Oklahoma
State, which would go on to qualify for the 2013 NCAA Division I
Tournament.
In starting the season with a 1-7 record, Davis made five starts of at
least six innings and two, or fewer, earned runs without getting a win.
However, after a couple of difficult road conference starts, he righted
the ship and won each of his last four starts, including a nine-inning
complete-game seven-hitter in a 5-3 win over Houston Baptist on May 16.
That game was Houston Baptist's only defeat in its last 14 games of
2013, including a four-game sweep to the Great West Conference
Tournament Championship. It was one of just three times in the 13-1
surge that HBU was held to as few as three runs.
He accounted for four of his team's 11 regular season conference wins
and also kept the season alive with a win in the first elimination game
against NYIT in the Great West Conference Tournament in what would be
his final college appearance.
An outstanding student who graduated from NJIT with a cumulative grade
point average above 3.7, Davis was a Great West Conference All-Academic
honoree in each of his last three seasons with the Highlanders.
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