Cardington baseball player Nate Craig will keep his career in the sport going on, as he’ll play for Wilmington College.
“I really like the community and coach,” he said. “It felt like home and I really like the facility. The indoor playing area was really nice. I really liked walking on it and doing a workout.”
Craig, who will major in either business management or accounting, noted that he’d been looking at colleges for some time, also thinking about Mount Vernon Nazarene and Wilmington.
“I’ve been looking for a couple years,” he said. “After my junior year, coach (Nathan) Strome helped me through it and helped with my final decision.”
Part of the reason for that decision was that the Wilmington coaches let him know he had the potential to help out immediately.
“The coaches were really interested in me and I felt like a part of the team,” he said. “They told me I could come in and help the team right away. They said I could be a big help if I come in and work hard.”
Craig noted that he’ll probably see most of his action at catcher, but could also play other positions, such as second base. He added that he put in a lot of work to be prepared for college baseball.
“I was working extremely hard through the offseason and winter,” he said. “Coach Strome helped me with my blocking skills. Throwing to second base, I’m down to 1.9 seconds.”
However, he knows he’ll still have to improve in other facets of his game, noting that he’ll need to be a better hitter to be a college contributor.
“My hitting skills,” he said. “I have to get contact better and work on my power. I’ve been working on hitting in the cage and doing a lot of hitting drills. They’ve helped out tremendously.”
While looking forward to his upcoming experiences in college, Craig will miss a number of things about his time with the Pirates.
“I had fun times hanging out with the guys and playing the game,” he said. “Probably beating Mount Gilead both times this year and having a winning season this year. That was a big thing.”
