The Yorkton Cardinals are continuing to bring in highly skilled baseball players for the 2014 WMBL season.
Joining the Cardinals this season will be infielder Austin Drummonds (Talladega College) as well as outfielder Cutter Runte (St. Edward's University).
Drummonds, a Junior out of Sylacauga, Alabama, will be coming to Yorkton for the first time this summer. However he'll be joining four of his Talladega College Tornadoes teammates; Matthew Collier and Cardinal returnees Jeff Pool, George Santiago and Kameron Mizzell in Yorkton, meaning he'll already be familiar with many of his Cardinals teammates.
The 6'1", 195-pound Drummonds appeared in 45 of the Tornadoes' 58 games this season, starting in 34 of them. In those 45 games Drummonds hit .340 with 10 doubles, one triple and two homeruns. In addition to driving in 28 runs Drummonds, who is known for his speed, was successful in stealing 13 of 16 bases in the 2014 college season.
Throughout the 2014 collegiate season Drummonds demonstrated a good eye at the plate as evidenced by the 18 walks he registered and the low total of strikeouts, just 15, in 103 at-bats.
His defence, however, needs some work as he made 10 errors for the Tornadoes and has a team low .859 fielding percentage.
Runte will also be a Cardinal rookie in the summer of 2014.
At 5'11", 160-pounds Runte does not cut an imposing figure. However he doesn't need to. The Junior from Houston, Texas, started in 52 of the Hilltoppers 53 games so far this season where he hit a modest .270 (he hit .309 in 2013). What's not modest about his offensive stats is his walk total. Runte walked a total of 43 times in the 2014 season for the Hilltoppers; 23 walks more than the second highest total on the team, resulting in an impressive .444 on base percentage.
Of his 44 hits on the season eight were doubles, two were triples and one left the park for a homerun which resulted in a total of 21 RBI's.
Defensively Runte is solid. In 52 starts the Houston native recorded just three errors and recorded 69 outs. He also picked up five outfield assists, meaning he threw out five base runners from his outfield position.
Both are welcome additions to what appears to be a strong Cardinals club for the 2014 season.
