August 3, 2005

FARMVILLE, Va. -- Longwood University baseball standout Charlie Yarbrough/Richmond (Mills Godwin) has been named the 2005 Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League’s Player of the Year, and Top Position Prospect. A 6-6, 255-pound first baseman, he led the well-respected ‘wood bat’ league in home runs (10) and RBI (28) while hitting .330 (fifth in the league) for the regular season champion Columbus (Ohio) All-Americans (30-12). Yarbrough will be a junior at Longwood during 2005-06.

“Charlie has tremendous power, and the ball really jumps off of his bat like a major leaguer,” said Columbus manager Brian Mannino, this year’s GLSCL Manager of the Year. “He is a man among boys in this league in terms of swinging a wood bat. He is still learning to hit; working hard to develop discipline at the plate. Charlie will continue to get better as he matures.”

In addition to his team-best .330 batting average, 10 home runs, and 28 RBI, Yarbrough added seven doubles, 21 runs, a team-best .670 slugging percentage and .411 on-base percentage, along with a .970 fielding percentage. He led the All-Americans to their regular season title and the #1 seed for the GLSCL Tournament August 4-6 to be hosted by Columbus at The Ohio State University’s Bill Davis Stadium.

The Great Lakes League was formed in 1986 and has over 70 Major League Baseball (MLB) alumni, including current players Chad Cordero (Washington), Paul Quantrill (New York Yankees), and Nick Swisher (Oakland) among others. Last year’s GLSCL player of the year, Joe Ness (Ball State), was drafted in the sixth round of this year’s MLB Draft by the Cleveland Indians (184th overall).

Longwood (16-32) could return as many as 18 letterwinners for 2006 when competing in year three of the institution’s four-year NCAA Division I Reclassification toward official certification in September 2007.