Wilkerson signs with Paine

Scott Wilkerson isn't one to give up.

//

The Harlem senior has had more than a few setbacks in his pursuit of a college baseball scholarship. He missed his entire junior season because of tendonitis in his hip and the complications that came with it. This year, he was cut from the Harlem baseball team after he said he hadn't fully recovered from a knee injury in the fall.

The obstacles were enough to demoralize any athlete, but he said he wasn't worried.

"Not really, because I was playing with the Nike (5-tool nationals blue) team with George (Blackburn) and Roger (Wilkerson) in the summer," he said. "They told me not to worry about high school because I'd get noticed more with the Nike team."

Paine College baseball coach Pete Cardenas did notice Wilkerson in a game this past summer.

"He's a good ball player," Cardenas said. "I don't get into why he wasn't on the Harlem team, but I saw him in summer ball and that's where he impressed me."

On Wednesday, the first day of the late signing period for baseball, Wilkerson signed a National Letter of Intent to play college baseball at Paine next spring.

Wilkerson, a right-handed side-arm pitcher, has a record of 14-5 during the last two years with the Nike 5-tool team. The 6-0, 180-pound senior said he'll most likely be used as a relief pitcher at Paine.

Wilkerson isn't the first of his family to play at the collegiate level. His cousin, Kyle Wilkerson, is a freshman on the Savannah State team after a high school career at Evans. Another cousin, Cody Wilkerson, played all four years on the Harlem baseball team from 2000-03.