NEWBERRY COUNTY — It has been a season of baseball honors as players all over the county have been named player of the year and named to All Star and All State teams.
These honors went to three players in particular — Corey Stone, Chase McCarley and Preston Farmer. Whitmire High School’s head baseball coach, Chris Martin, was named coach for the North team in the North-South All Star baseball game.
Corey Stone, a recent graduate of Mid-Carolina High School, was selected to play in the South Carolina Select game and was named Player of the Year for Region 3-AAA and State Player of the Year.
“The Region player of the year is decided by the other coaches in the region. Basically we go to an all region meeting, your coach can nominate you, but cannot vote on your own guy,” said Mid-Carolina Head Coach Lindsay Stribble. “It shows what other coaches in your conference thought about him. They voted him not only All Region, but player of the year for the Region. It’s a pretty big honor.”
Stribble added that this shows who the coaches think is the best player in the Region. Stone was 8-0 on the mound this year. Six of those wins were in the conference and two were in the playoffs.
“Definitely something you want to be chosen as. It was my goal going into the year, my main goal,” Stone said. “Obviously it feels really good to achieve that goal, and see hard work pay off.”
To help achieve his goal, Stone said they started lifting after football season. As soon as football season ended, which Stone also played at Mid-Carolina, they started practicing, and doing what Stribble said.
“I knew it, he knew it and our kids knew it, anytime Corey Stone was scheduled to pitch we knew we had a chance to win. In high school baseball, that is 90 percent of the battles. That was a real blessing to be able to know you had a guy like that you could send out there,” Stribble said.
In the fall, Stone will attended the University of South Carolina, where he will play baseball.
McCarley, a recent graduate of Whitmire High School, was selected to play in the Class A All-State Team and the North-South All-Star game.
“He is only the third player we have had in the past decade, and it is the second in the past two years. It is quite an honor. There is only about eight Class A players in the state that made the team, he is one of those, that is quite an honor,” Martin said. “For me it is my second time around. I also had the opportunity to coach in 2013. It is a lot of fun, you get to meet a lot of people, manage some unbelievable talent. It is an honor and it is a tremendous amount of fun.”
Martin said coaches are appointed from the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association, and players are selected when coaches nominate their players, and the group decides.
“Feels like I got my name out there, got my talent out and got chosen,” McCarley said.
McCarley will attend USC-Union in the fall, where he will play baseball.
Farmer, a recent graduate of Mid-Carolina High School, was also selected to play in the North/South All-Star game.
“It was awesome, great accomplishment, I always wanted to play college baseball, and this helped me a ton. When my coach pulled me aside and told me I made it, it made my year a whole lot better,” Farmer said. “My favorite part was meeting the players on the team and playing with a team full of all stars, getting to play with the top players in the state, it was awesome.”
Stribble recently said Farmer is not a flashy player, but he just works hard and plays the game the right way.
“It was a great accomplishment, awesome being there in that environment with those players top in the state, it was just awesome.”
Farmer will also attend USC-Union in the fall, where he will play baseball.
