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Monday - September 19, 2005

Alumni News: Hollimon

Michael Hollimon's Oneonta Tigers stumbled in the New York-Penn League playoffs...going out in two games. But, the article about the end of the season had some nice things to say about Michael:

One constant bright spot for the Tigers this season was Michael Hollimon, one of four players from Oneonta to make the inaugural NY-Penn All-Star team. Second baseman Will Rhymes, third baseman Cory Middleton and outfielder Justin Justice also were selected.

Shortstop Hollimon, a 16th-round draft pick out of Oral Roberts, set or tied three Oneonta franchise records and finished in the top three in four NY-Penn statistical categories.

Hollimon led the league with 66 runs — breaking Oneonta’s record of 65 set by Terry Whitfield in 1972 — and 10 triples. He also finished second in the NY-Penn in home runs, hitting 13 to tie an Oneonta record shared by Ruben Rivera (1993) and Darren Mandel (1984).

Additionally, Hollimon had the third-most RBIs in the league (53) and set a team record with 143 total bases, beating the old mark of 140 set in 1978 by Brian Dayett.

"I see him moving to (full-season Single-A) West Michigan next season for sure," Brookens said of free-swinging Hollimon, who had a team-worst 76 strikeouts. "Certainly Holli had proved himself at this level. He was certainly a bright spot and has major league potential.

"He needs to cut down on strikeouts," he continued. "When he first came, he came with the reputation of making errors. We worked on them and he ironed out quickly. He’s a gamer. You can put him out there and you don’t worry."

Posted by Joanna at 12:58 PM