Calvert Hall Ranked No. 2 Nationally

 (Calvert Hall Athletic Department)

By: Keith Mills

The Calvert Hall baseball team is ranked No. 2 in the first Baseball America national high school poll. Lou Eckerl's Cardinals are also headed to Yucaipa, Calif. and the 19th Anderson Bat National Classic, one of the premiere high school baseball tournaments in the country.

The Cardinals finished 33-0 in 2007 and won their third straight MIAA A Conference championship. They bring back a talented and deep team led by seniors Kevin Lingerman and Mike Dillon and junior Pat Blair. Both Lingerman, who announced last month he'll play his college baseball next spring at George Mason, and Blair played this fall for the prestigious Oriolelanders Major League Scout Team coached by Orioles scout and former Brooklyn Park High School pitcher Dean Albany while Lingerman, Blair and Dillon were all named to the state baseball coaches association preseason all-state team.

Calvert Hall is also ranked ninth in this week's Collegiate Baseball high school poll and is just one of many outstanding teams who will play in the Anderson Bat Tournament which will be held March 22-28.

St. John's of Washington, D.C., is ranked No. 2 by Collegiate Baseball and features two of the best players in the country -- pitcher Scott Silverstein, an AFLAC All-American and L.J. Hoes, a 2007 Rawlings All-American who has signed to play next year at North Carolina.

Hoes played last summer on Albany's Maryland Orioles team, which won the AAABA national championship in Johnstown, Pa. along with such former area high school standouts as Dulaney's Steven Bumbry (now at Virginia Tech), Old Mill's Alex Buchholz (Delaware) and Calvert Hall's Joe Velleggia (Old Dominion).

Orange Lutheran of California and James Rivers High of Virginia are also entered in the tournament.

Issue 3.10: March 6, 2008