Four-team, six-game regional-format tournament scheduled for early June
Cullowhee, N.C. – Western Carolina baseball junior Daylan Nanny has been invited to compete in the Collegiate Summer Baseball Invitational scheduled for June 4-6 in Bryan, Texas, just ahead of the abbreviated, five-round MLB First-Year Player Draft scheduled for June 10-11.
The Collegiate Summer Baseball Invitational (CSBI) is an invitation-only, four-team regional formatted tournament that will feature players from all over the country. Each team will compete for a couple of days of workouts before assembling rosters and playing a weekend, round-robin tournament with six games in three days at Travis Field, home of the Brazos Valley Bombers of the Texas Collegiate League.
Nanny is scheduled to fly into Houston, Texas, today (June 1), which is just 100 miles to the southeast of the host city, Bryan, Texas – a suburb of College Station, home of Texas A&M University. He will join the other players for practice ahead of the games that open at 5:30 pm ET / 4:30 pm CT.
“I’m super excited for the opportunity,” said Nanny. “This will be a very cool experience and will simply be great to be back on the field playing. I’m excited to represent Western Carolina and Catamount baseball on this big platform.”
An outfielder by trade, Nanny has also seen time at first base during his season-plus in Cullowhee. The Plainfield, Ind., product was hot out of the gates in 2020 with four doubles through the first four games and six combined hits through the opening four-game series against Chicago State. He posted a two-hit, 2-for-3 outing in a neutral field victory over Big XII-foe, Kansas, but was just 1-for-14 over the final four games of the shortened season.
In 2019, the transfer from Arizona Western College made 50 starts including 42 in rightfield. He batted .320 with 66 hits including a team-high 19 doubles, tied for the second-most in the Southern Conference. He hit seven home runs including a grand slam in late February against Oakland.
“This is a tremendous opportunity for Daylan as he showcases both himself and our baseball program on a national level against some elite collegiate competition in Texas. Being selected is a huge honor for him,” said WCU head coach Bobby Moranda. “So much has happened since our season was cut short this spring and with so many question marks about summer league baseball, having this chance to go play, continue to grow as a player and be surrounded by so many other great collegiate players will do nothing but help him continue to improve.”
According to an event press conference, the CSBI tournament has been coordinated with local health officials and includes the full quarantining of everyone involved from players, coaches, umpires, drivers, and broadcast teams. All will be secured in a local hotel for the entirety of the week and will be tested for COVID-19 upon their arrival, and will be checked daily for any medical conditions. All events will be closed off to fans and the ballpark will be secured by local law enforcement to ensure the quarantined individuals remain protected.
With all of the players having their spring seasons canceled, other safety precautions such as pitch counts, innings, and appearance limits will be put in place that will allow organizers to expand rosters and allow a lot of players to participate in the event which is free for the players, the release states.
The three-day CSBI will be video streamed on a pay-per-view basis by Infinity Sports & Entertainment with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. Five-percent of the retail price of each subscription will be donated to No Kid Hungry (nokidhungry.org). For more information on the 2020 Collegiate Summer Baseball Invitational, visit www.csbi2020.com.
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