Hunter Atkins had a productive season with the Asheboro ZooKeepers last summer before his first season for Catawba. (Randolph Record)
The roles for Hunter Atkins on the baseball field have evolved the past couple of years, but he’s still making contributions.
The former Randleman standout is a left fielder for Catawba, which is one of the top Division II baseball teams in the country.
Atkins played in 40 of Catawba’s first 44 games. He’s batting .317 with 11 doubles, two triples and 26 runs batted in.
The No. 11 Indians began this week with a 32-12 record, including first-place mark of 22-5 in the South Atlantic Conference. Catawba has secured its 23rd 30-win season since 2000.
Atkins played on a pair of Class 2A state championship teams for Randleman, logged a season with Randolph County Post 45 in American League baseball and spent a season as a redshirt with UNC Greensboro.
He was mostly an infielder along the way, including last year with the Asheboro ZooKeepers in the summer Coastal Plain League. Then, he was making a transition from third baseman to shortstop.
“I like moving to short,” he said last summer. “You can see the ball a little bit longer.”
Atkins batted .294 for the ZooKeepers, ending the season on a 1-for-10 stretch that knocked him out of the list of league batting leaders.
Earlier this season, Catawba senior outfielder Dylan Driver, who played the past two summers for the ZooKeepers, was named the Southeast Region’s Player of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. He had four home runs and 10 runs batted in across a four-game stretch.
Southwestern Randolph graduate Blake Marsh is an infielder and pitcher for Catawba. He has appeared in five games.
Also in the SAC, Gage Miller of Asheboro is an infielder with Division II Virginia-Wise (26-18, 14-13 fourth). Catawba won two of three road games against Virginia-Wise in mid-March.
