Hometown heroes | Area baseball players get minor league assignments
Michael Suchy already received multiple warm welcomes in Bradenton as a member of the Marauders.
Cord Sandberg will have to wait until July for his.
Suchy, a former Southeast star, should be a fixture in the outfield for the Pirates' Class-A Advanced affiliate after batting .275 with an .803 on-base-plus-slugging percentage during an All-Star campaign for Class A West Virginia last season.
Sandberg, who starred in both football and baseball for Manatee, began the season in the outfield for Clearwater after spending last year with Class A Lakewood, where he batted .255 with five home runs and 28 doubles. The Threshers don't travel to McKechnie Field until a four-game series from July 17-21.
Suchy and Sandberg just miss an opportunity to go up against another former Manatee County standout as Granden Goetzman, who spent last season with the Rays' Florida State League affiliate, Charlotte, was promoted to Double A Montgomery. The former Palmetto outfielder batted .240 for Charlotte last season.
Seth McGarry, however, has a shot to join Suchy and Sandberg in the Florida State League sometime this season. The pitcher from Lakewood Ranch started with the West Virginia Power, where he finished last year. McGarry posted a 1.50 ERA in three starts in the Rookie-level Gulf Coast League before making nine starts with a 4.62 ERA for the Power to finish last season.
Brad Zunica, another former Mustang, is on the fastest track of any of the area natives in professional baseball.
After graduating Ranch a year early, the first baseman spent one season at Miami before transferring to State College of Florida and going pro. As a 19-year-old, Zunica batted .271 with seven home runs in the Arizona League in 2015 and began this saeson with the Padres' Double A franchise in Fort Wayne.
Cameron Pearcey
Cameron Pearcey isn't a total staple in Coastal Carolina's lineup this season, but the former Lakewood Ranch middle infielder has still been an important cog to an impressive year for the Chanticleers.
Pearcey didn't play in a recent 4-2 loss to No. 8 South Carolina, which snapped a seven-game winning streak for CCU, after getting a hit and driving in a run during his only at-bat of a three-game sweep against Gardner-Webb during the previous weekend. Coastal Carolina is a fringe Top 25 team in every major college baseball poll.
The freshman played in 19 of the Chanticleers's first 30 games this season, making seven starts and batting .333 with one home run.
Jada Massie
Jada Massie went to Florida Atlantic, hoping to break program track and field records. As a freshman, she's already competing on a relay that's coming close.
Massie ran the third leg of the Owls' 400-meter relay at the Florida Relays recently, and FAU clocked a time of 45.43 seconds. Although Florida Atlantic only finished 17th in the race, the time was the third-fastest in program history.
Massie also set a personal record with a 47th place finish in the 100 dash in Gainesville at 11.81 seconds.
Teammate Deja Jones, a junior, set the program record at 11.55 in the same event and finished 23rd.
This story was originally published April 12, 2016 at 12:01 AM with the headline "Hometown heroes | Area baseball players get minor league assignments ."