Marty Gordon
A member of this past year’s Blacksburg High School regional playoff team in baseball has announced plans to continue his career next year at East Tennessee State University (ETSU).
Brice Abbott signed a letter of intent on Wednesday.
This past year as a junior, he averaged .437 with two homeruns for Blacksburg as they finished 19-4 and fell to Dominion in the state playoffs. Abbott was named first team all-district, first team 4D region, second team all-state class 4 and was a Salem baseball Hall of Fame nominee.
Abbott chose to commit and sign to ETSU because of the overall environment and coaching staff.
“The coaching staff is phenomenal and recruited me the hardest as a junior,” he said. “The atmosphere as well is amazing, and the community is extremely involved with the athletic side of the college which is really important to me.”
This past year was ETSU’s best season under Joe Pennucci. The Bucs went 36-20 and 13-8 in SoCon play on their way to finishing third in the league standings. The third-place finish is the team’s highest since 2010 when they were members of the Atlantic Sun, and it was ETSU’s best finish in the SoCon since 1992.
His goal going into college is to find a way to start as a freshman, according to Abbott, overall to just grow my abilities.
“I plan on grinding for that starting job and securing it for my college career with dreams of one day getting drafted,” he said.
Abbott plans on majoring in Sports and Recreation Management with a possible minor in Nutrition. He expects to play either third or first base in college.