Infielder back with the Miners

PALMER — Despite just recently wrapping up his freshman season of college baseball, Blake Newalu is already a veteran of the Alaska Baseball League. Now Newalu is back for another summer with the Mat-Su Miners.

“I’m really excited to be back up here,” Newalu said Saturday, just hours after arriving in Palmer. “I’m real comfortable here and I’m glad (Mat-Su Miners general manager Pete Christopher) invited me back.”

Newalu, who has been penciled in as Mat-Su’s starting shortstop this season, is one of five Miner veterans to return to the Valley for another summer season. Outfielder D.J. Gentile, and pitchers Will Musson, Mike Carlson and Jeremy Atkins also return, givng Mat-Su fans a familiar core of talent that helped lead the Miners to a league-high 25 wins last season.

Last season. Newalu arrived in the Valley as a blue chip prospect bound for the University of San Diego. He finished among team leaders in several offensive catagories with the Miners. He led the team with 30 singles, and he was third on the squad in batting average (.270), hits (34) and runs (19). He was also, arguably, Mat-Su’s best defensive infielder.

Now after changing schools — Newalu opted to leave Division I San Diego in favor of Chipola Community College midway through his freshman campagin — the McDonough, Ga., native is ready to elevate his game even further.

“A made the choice to move closer to home, and be draft eligible earlier,” said Newalu, who started 32 games at shortstop for Chipola, a school he described as “a baseball factory of the south.”

As a freshman Newalu hit .326 and scored 21 runs for a Chipola, a top JUCO program that has produced players such as Russell Martin, who is now an All-Star catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Cole Armstrong, a former Mat-Su Miners standout who now plays for Chicago White Sox AAA afiliate.

Newalu also managed to top the .300 mark despite becoming a switch-hitter for the first time in his baseball career. Naturally a right-handed batter, Newalu said baseball scouts predicted becoming a switch-hitter would help him get to the next level of baseball. Although he still has more success at the right side of the plate, Newalu hopes to get a few at-bats from the left this season.

Newalu said he was recruited by Chiopola out of high school, but initially decided to sign with a Division I program. He is slated to return to the Florida community college following the summer, but is leaving his options open after that. Newalu is eligible to be drafted in the Major League Baseball first-year player draft, which starts Tuesday. But his preference, he said, is to play at least one more year of college ball. After two seasons at Chipola, he could either be drafted or transfer to another Division I program.

Newalu and the Miners will take the diamond for the first time this season on Wednesday when Mat-Su hosts the Anchorage Bucs at Hermon Brothers Field at 7 p.m.

Contact Frontiersman sports editor Jeremiah Bartz at sports@frontiersman.com.