Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Valparaiso University head baseball coach Tracy Woodson will be inducted into the North Carolina State University Baseball Hall of Fame as part of the 2012 First Pitch Banquet held on Feb. 16 in Raleigh, N.C.

“It is quite an honor to be selected to the Baseball Hall of Fame at NC State,” Woodson said.  “There have been numerous outstanding players that have played in the Wolfpack program and to be chosen as a member of this class means a great deal to me.”

Woodson will join Terry Harvey and Jake Weber as members of this year’s class, making 12 total members in the Hall of Fame.

He played for the Wolfpack from 1982-1984 and was named to the Atlantic Coast Conference’s 50^th Anniversary Team in 2003.  The ACC Player of the Year in 1984, he batted .373 with 25 home runs and 77 runs batted in that season while earning Second Team All-America accolades by Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, and the ABCA.

“I owe a tremendous amount of gratitude to Coach (Sam) Esposito and the NC State baseball program,” Woodson added. “The opportunity I got to play there helped to jump start my career in professional baseball.”

Woodson holds the NC State single season slugging percentage record at .914 and shares the school’s single season home run record with the 25 in just 40 games.  He went on to be drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the third round of the 1984 Major League Baseball Draft and eventually won a World Series title with the Dodgers in 1988.

Woodson is beginning his sixth season at the helm of Valparaiso where he led the Crusaders to the championship game of the Horizon League Tournament in 2011.  Since his arrival at Valpo, four of Woodson’s players have been selected in the Major League Baseball draft with seven of his former players having appeared in professional uniforms.

The Crusaders will open the 2012 baseball season on Feb. 17 in the first of a three-game series at Murray State.  First pitch is slated for 1 p.m. in Murray, Ky.