David Bergin, left, and Cody Gaskill, the 2011 and 2010 baseball players of the year in the Appalachian Athletic Conference, will lead Tennessee Wesleyan to the NAIA World Series this week.
Staff Photo By Ron Bush/Chattanooga Times Free PressATHENS, Tenn. – David Bergin hardly can wait to get to Lewiston, Idaho. The Tennessee Wesleyan College baseball pitcher and designated hitter says he’s never played in front of more than a hundred or so people, but he and his teammates probably will have about 6,000 watching their game Friday night against NAIA World Series host Lewis-Clark State.
“I’m very excited to play in front of a lot of people,” said the powerfully built Bergin, a 6-foot-3, 235-pound junior from Tampa, Fla., who was the Appalachian Athletic Conference player of the year. “Very excited.”
He’s one of nine key juniors in their first season at TWC, which lost seven seniors from the 2010 team that made the program’s first trip to the World Series. Two of last year’s pitchers were drafted by major league teams.
Coming from Florida State College after first going to Georgia Southern out of high school, Bergin has batted .430 with 23 home runs, 11 doubles and 67 RBIs for coach Billy Berry and the Bulldogs. He hit five homers in one game.
The only teammate who has driven in more runs is senior second baseman Cody Gaskill, the 2010 AAC player of the year. Gaskill has hit .365 with 12 homers, 18 doubles and 71 RBIs.