Boatner making waves, has sights on Bulldogs

With the news last week that Greenbrier standout Nolan Belcher committed to the University of South Carolina, the stage is set for some fun college baseball match-ups in 2009.

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Belcher will be at USC, Rich Poythress will be a junior at Georgia and Greenbrier's Jeff Rowland and Brandon Cumpton will be sophomores at Georgia Tech.

Though Georgia Tech and South Carolina might not square off in the regular season, Georgia will play Georgia Tech and South Carolina several times - not to mention that each program should have enough incoming talent to make post-season play and challenge for a College World Series berth. I can't wait to see the action.

Boatner noticed

I was going through a few basketball recruiting sites the other day when I noticed a familiar name. There, among the list of top rising juniors in Georgia was Harlem guard Cedric Boatner.

Scout.com has 23 players in Georgia's 2009 recruiting class profiled on its site, and Boatner is on the list.

The 6-foot, 170-pound guard will need to grow a bit to realize his full potential, but the fact that he has himself on sites like this certainly bodes well for him. He also has a profile page on Rivals.com.

Last season, as a sophomore, Boatner earned All-County honors for the Bulldogs. Now, being listed is no guarantee of a major scholarship (especially this early), but it is definitely a step in the right direction, especially when you consider that Georgia is loaded year in and year out. I think 2009 is no different.

The Peach State boasts the top big man in the nation for the '09 class in Atlanta's Derrick Favors (6-9, 230).

Boatner should challenge for county player of the year honors each of the next two seasons.

Correction

In a previous column, I mentioned that the Columbia County 13-year-old All-Stars' accomplishment was even more impressive when you consider that they were without one of the state's top 13-year-olds, Jordan Rice.

I reported that Rice chose to play travel ball rather than play with the Columbia County Recreation Department. I stand corrected.

Though I do believe Rice to be one of the state's top 13-year-olds in Georgia (if he is one of the best players in the premier baseball hotbed in the state, how would he not be one of the state's best players?), he did not play travel ball.

He did play in the Columbia County Recreation Department summer league for part of the season but was not a part of the All-Star team.