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MOBILE, Ala. – University of South Alabama baseball signed nine student-athletes to National Letters of Intent, as announced Tuesday by head coach Mark Calvi.

Six of the nine who will enroll next fall will join the program from the high school ranks, while three join the program from junior college.

“We wanted to address pitching depth with this year’s class,” Calvi said. “We tried to bolster our pitching staff with a mixture of high school and junior college kids – that was the goal. We didn’t need many position players because it is such an unusual year; so many kids are coming back. Positions are accounted for and guys are young. There are so many kids who will be back next year that there just wasn’t a need to bring in guys to play part-time or sit the bench. In this class, we tried to recruit what you can’t manufacture and that’s pitching and defense. I wanted to make sure that we addressed the bullpen – the last three to four innings of each and every game. Teams with good bullpens, closers and solid defense are the teams that win and win consistently.

“All of these guys had to have the makeup. They had to be great players and have great character and makeup or they would not be in this class. And all of these kids are from winning programs. It was really important that we got guys who have won, know how to win and have good makeup. That is really important.”


OF  Cole Billingsley – 5-11 • 175 • L/L  (Pell City HS / Pell City, Ala.)
Billingsley helped lead the Team USA 16-Under national team to a gold medal at the 2010 Pan American AA Youth Championships in Lagos de Moreno, Mexico. He batted .364 with a double, triple, home run, six RBI, two stolen bases and 14 runs scored in nine games for Team USA, and hit safely in eight of nine contests. Billingsley recorded multiple hits in four games, and drove in multiple runs twice. He was selected to the 2011 18U USA National Team 40-man roster earlier this fall.

Billingsley received honorable mention honors from Perfect Game USA as a junior last season at Pell City High School. He has played four years of club ball with Excel Baseball Academy in Oxford, Ala.

Calvi on Billingsley - “Cole (Billingsley) just has a really good feel for the game. He is an unbelievable kid both on and off the field. He has great makeup and is versatile; he can play every outfield position and can pitch. And he is versatile in the lineup as well. He can lead off, and it wouldn’t shock me if he was our three-hole hitter one day. He really wanted to be at South Alabama. He was recruited by other schools, but this is the place with which he felt most comfortable. I think he is the type of player who comes in and has an immediate impact. He is everything you want in a student-athlete – he’s a great kid and person, a great teammate and I think he is a really good player with a chance to be a great player.”


LHP  Jon-Austin Harville - 5-7 • 165 • L/L (Baldwin County [Ala.] HS / Bay Minette, Ala.)
Harville enters his senior season at Baldwin County High School just 20 strikeouts shy of the school’s all-time record. As a junior last year, the left-hander went 9-2 with a 2.60 ERA and 86 strikeouts in 70 innings pitched and helped lead the Tigers and head coach Peter Bezeredi to the Alabama High School Athletic Association 6A state championship series.

Harville has played summer ball for the Pensacola Pirates the past two years for coach Larry Scaphecci and coach Shawn Boland.

Calvi on Harville – “J.A. (Harville) is a really good athlete. He is a dual guy, but was recruited as a pitcher only here. He is that guy who is going to prove you wrong every time – he’s just a winner. You need your whole team to have his frame of mind. He is a plus competitor and has great makeup. He can pitch. He has a good changeup, a solid breaking ball and he has poise and composure. The kid is just a winner.”


RHP  Hunter Soleymani - 6-0 • 195 • R/R (Pelham HS / Pelham, Ala.)
Soleymani (pronounced sah-la-MAH-nee) went 5-4 with one save and posted a 1.21 ERA with 66 strikeouts in 52 innings pitched as a junior last season at Pelham High School for head coach Jeff Mauldin. The right-hander pitched three complete games and tossed one shutout.

Soleymani plays club ball at Excel Baseball Academy, along with Billingsley, based out of Oxford, Ala.

Calvi on Soleymani – “Hunter (Soleymani) is a bulldog-type kid. He is a mid-to-upper 80s pitcher with an outstanding breaking ball and changeup. He is a real bulldog on the mound and an outstanding student as well. He has great makeup. He is an Alabama kid, and this is where he wanted to be. He knows how to pitch.”


RHP  Dylan Stamey - 6-1 • 170 • R/R (Faulkner State [Ala.] CC / Theodore, Ala.)
Stamey posted a 1.90 ERA in 42 2/3 innings pitched and recorded 47 strikeouts to earn Alabama Community College Conference second-team all-Southern Division honors as a freshman. He allowed just nine earned runs on the season for Faulkner State Community College head coach and former Jaguar Wayne Larker

Calvi on Stamey – “(Dylan) Stamey put up great numbers at Faulkner State. He is a candidate to be our closer next year. He is definitely the type of guy who nails down the back end of a bullpen. He has a lively fastball – he is anywhere from 88-92 and is just hard to hit. He attacks guys with his fastball.”


RHP  Matt Sharp - 6-1 • 190 • R/R (C.E. Byrd [La.] HS / Shreveport, La.)
Sharp was named the Shreveport Times Pitcher of the Year in 2010 after finishing 9-2 as a sophomore for BHS and head coach Al Cantwell. He went 8-1 with 76 strikeouts as a junior last season. He was named all-District 1-5A and received an all-state honorable mention from the Louisiana Sports Writers Association after going 4-0 with a 3.55 ERA and 25 strikeouts in district contests. The right-hander holds the school record for career wins (19) heading into his senior season. Thus far in his career, Sharp is 19-4 with a 2.10 ERA.

He played club ball with Marruci Elite, based out of Baton Rouge, La., last summer.

Calvi on Sharp – “Matt (Sharp) is a dual-sport guy who is mid-to-upper 80s and has touched 90-91 with a solid breaking ball and changeup. He has an idea of how to pitch. He is kind of beyond his years as far as pitching ability. He played in one of the most elite summer league programs in the country with Marruci Elite. Matt is a great student as well, and we feel extremely fortunate to have gotten him away from some really big name schools that were recruiting him this summer.”


RHP  Matt Bell - 6-2 • 175 • R/R (Tacoma [Wash.] CC / Covington, Wash.)
Bell went 6-2 with a 2.20 ERA and one save, and struck out 53 batters while issuing just 18 walks in 49 innings pitched as a freshman last season at Tacoma Community College. The right-hander posted a 1.02 WHIP and limited the opposition to a .175 batting average en route to earning second-team all-West Region honors.

Calvi on Bell – “Matt Bell is a junior college guy who is a proven winner. He had solid numbers at Tacoma. He has an outstanding splitfinger (fastball), solid slider and fastball command. He is an upper 80s guy who touches 90-91 and has already put up good numbers at the college level.”


IF/RHP  Hayden Jones - 6-0 • 160 • R/R (Tift County [Ga.] HS / Tifton, Ga.)
Jones helped lead TCHS and head coach Billy Beale to the second round of the Georgia High School Association AAAAA state playoffs as a junior last season after tossing a no-hitter in the opening round of the tournament. He batted .417 with eight doubles, a triple, one home run, 22 RBI and posted a 1.075 OPS in 31 games last season. Jones recorded 11 multiple-hit and eight multiple-RBI games.

On the mound, he went 5-4 with one save and a 2.91 ERA in 74 2/3 innings pitched. He struck out 81 batters against 33 walks and limited the opposition to a .227 batting average in 17 appearances. Jones made 12 starts and pitched seven complete games.

He has played two years of summer ball with Home Plate out of Peachtree City, Ga., and helped the team capture the 2011 Continental Amateur Baseball Association national championship.

Calvi on Jones – “Hayden (Jones) is that offensive middle infielder who can pitch. (Assistant) Coach (Jerry) Zulli had a history with him when he was at Memphis. He saw him play a lot and he was one of the top middle infielders on his list, if not the top infielder. Hayden is a guy who is very mature mentally. When he matures physically, he could be a monster. He should be an impact guy very quickly and very early on in his career.”


RHP  Kyle Rovig - 6-1 • 190 • R/R (Glenwood [Ala.] Academy / Phenix City, Ala.)
Rovig was named Alabama Independent School Association (AISA) first-team all-state by the Alabama Sports Writers Association as a junior last season after posting a 0.83 ERA - the lowest in a single season in the school’s history. He went 11-1 and struck out 77 batters in 67 1/3 innings pitched, and issued only 13 walks while limiting the opposition to a .163 batting average which earned the right-hander 2011 Louisville Slugger High School All-American honorable mention. He helped lead Glenwood Academy, the alma mater of current Atlanta Braves right-hander Tim Hudson, to back-to-back AAA AISA state championships in 2010-11.

Rovig was a member of the 2006 Little League World Series champion Southeast team, based out of Northern Little League in Columbus, Ga., that defeated Japan in the title game.

Calvi on Rovig – “Kyle (Rovig) has put up outstanding numbers in high school. He is a power pitcher who is 88-91 with a really good curveball. He hasn’t been pitching his whole life so he has a fresh arm and has really good stuff. With his stuff I think he can come in and help immediately, even as a young guy.”


RHP  Regan Calvert - 6-5 • 205 • R/R  (New Mexico JC / Plano, Texas)
Calvert participated in the Colorado-New Mexico JUCO All-Star Game, as well as the Texas-New Mexico Sophomore All-Star Game. The right-hander enters his sophomore season at New Mexico Junior College under head coach Josh Simpson.

Calvi on Calvert – “Regan (Calvert) is a big, physical kid who is up to 91 with a good breaking ball. He is one of those guys who hopefully puts it together. The sky’s the limit for him. Hopefully he has a good year at New Mexico Junior College and can come in here and make an immediate impact.”
    
Pitching coach Bob Keller on Calvert – “Regan throws from a high three-quarter slot. We have seen him twice. He will be 88-91 with a slider down and away. He was a starting pitcher in the Colorado-New Mexico Junior College All-Star Game held in Arizona. He throws his slider around 77 to 78 miles per hour, and it has a good downward angle. He is young to pitching; he has only been pitching for two years. He comes from an established high school program where he played under coach Mike Maack at Prestonwood Christian Academy. He has outstanding character and makeup, and projects to be a late-inning closer type of guy.”


This year's class marked Calvi's first as head coach at USA. The first-year skipper had high praise for his coaching staff and their effort during the recruiting process.

“Those guys (coaching staff) worked tirelessly this fall,” Calvi said. “To come in when they did and get acclimated and plugged in to not only the local recruiting scene, but to also utilize their contacts they had at different places was outstanding and fun to watch. They worked tirelessly to put together this relatively small class, and to add on to our follow list for 2013-14.

“It’s such a demanding job. These guys were away from their families being on the road. (Hitting coach and recruiting coordinator) Jerry (Zulli) missed 90 percent of the fall – he was gone all the time. With Bob being the pitching coach, I didn’t want him gone quite as much. They did an outstanding job. And coach (Alan) Luckie, what a complimentary piece to the puzzle. Alan handles a lot of the on-campus tours, and he is so vital just from what he brings to the program. He is one of the best infield instructors I have ever seen. What infielder would not want to be coached by that guy? He is experienced and has a lot of wisdom. He is an integral part of our success. He works tirelessly as well. And (Director of Operations) Andrew Carden is a part of that. He is the behind-the-scenes guy who makes a lot of the recruiting possible. It has been a collective effort, and it has taken a whole staff to put this class on the field. It will continue to take the whole staff to keep bringing in good classes and be a championship-caliber program.”

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