A Pirate Returns to Lubbock
By: Rhett Kleinschmidt
Updated: June 14, 2007
GARDEN CITY, KS – Although the LCU Baseball Team just
concluded yet another 35 win season a little over a month ago, the Chaps are
already looking to next year as they have begun signing players for
2008.
To get the ball rolling, Head Coach Nathan Blackwood had to look no farther than his own back yard as Lubbock native Jakob Cunningham recently signed to pitch for Lubbock Christian beginning this fall.
A 2005 graduate of Cooper High School, Cunningham has spent the past two years at Garden City Community College.
This past season for the Broncbusters, Cunningham was 8-5 with a 4.13 earned run average making 16 appearances and tossing a team-high 96.0 innings. For his efforts, he was named a Kansas Jayhawk Community Conference First-Team All-Conference selection.
As a freshman, Cunningham made 17 appearances, again leading GCCC in innings with 78.0, and posted a 6-2 record with a 3.23 ERA.While at Cooper High School, Cunningham helped lead the Pirates to the state championship game as a senior, going 14-1 on the hill with 121 strikeouts in 87.2 innings and an ERA of 1.28. He was the District 2 3A Most Valuable Player, the All-South Plains Player of the Year, and landed on both the THSBCA and TSWA All-State teams.
Cunningham joins an LCU squad two years removed from a third place finish at the NAIA World series. In 2007, the Chaps went 37-17, finishing second in the Sooner Athletic Conference and third in NAIA’s Region VI.
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