From Mercer to Omaha: Former Baseball Player Edgington's Road to Success

Former MCCC pitcher Brian Edgington (Hatboro, PA/Hatboro-Horsham) was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Cincinnati Reds in early August.  Edgington is coming off a successful season with the University of Virginia Cavaliers, who reached the NCAA World Series in June.

 

Edgington played for the 2019 Mercer baseball team.  In his one year at MCCC, Edington went 4-2 with a 3.13 ERA.  Edgington had 34 strikeouts and only 4 walks in 31.2 innings pitched.  The Vikings went 27-12 that season falling to Lackawanna in the Region 19 Championship game. Edgington earned 1 ^st Team All Region 19 and All GSAC (Garden State Athletic Conference) Academic Honors in his two semesters at MCCC.  Edgington earned his Associates degree in Business Administration from Mercer in August 2019.

 

Edgington came to MCCC from St. Joseph’s University. Former MCCC Baseball Coach Fred Carella was glad Edgington ended up at Mercer.  “He came to us after getting injured while at St. Joe’s.  I originally saw him in high school and tried to get him to MCCC before he committed to St. Joe’s.  Eventually, he made his way to Mercer and had a very good season for us.  He spent the fall rehabbing from an injury and got back on the mound in the spring.  He became one of our best starting pitchers and earned a scholarship to Elon University.  He also put in a tremendous amount of work in the classroom to graduate in one year.” 

 

Carella attributed Edgington’s pitching success to several factors. “On the mound, he is a fierce competitor.  He was also very polished as a pitcher.  He had very good command of both his fastball and his splitter and used both effectively.”  The stats from each of Edgington’s stops in college show that good command he had, with a very low number of walks and high number of strikeouts.

 

Edgington played at Elon from 2020-2022.  Covid cut short the 2020 season, but in 2021, Edgington went 4-3 with a 4.08 ERA and had 66 strikeouts and only 16 walks in 70.2 innings pitched.  In his final season at Elon, Edgington went 6-4 with a 3.56 ERA, striking out 86 while only allowing 27 walks in 86 innings pitched, which was a staff high.  Edgington earned 2 ^nd Team All-CAA (Colonial Athletic Association) Honors.  Edgington had the most starts of any CAA pitcher that season, 2 ^nd most strikeouts in the conference (86) and 9 ^th best ERA (3.56) in the CAA.

 

In his final year of eligibility, Edgington transferred to the University of Virginia.  The Cavaliers went 50-15 in the 2023 season and were ranked as high as 5 ^th in the nation.  Edgington earned 3 ^rd Team All-ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference) honors and was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week for the week of May 15 ^th following six scoreless innings and eight strikeouts in a win against Louisville.  Edgington went 9-3 for the Cavaliers with a 3.57 ERA, striking out 94 while only walking 23 in 88.1 innings pitched.

 

UVA received an at-large bid to the NCAA Baseball Tournament and entered ranked 12 ^th nationally.  In Edgington’s first career NCAA Tournament start, he pitched five perfect innings in an opening 15-1 win over Army.  

 

The Cavaliers advanced to the Super Regionals where they hosted Duke in a best of three series.  UVA lost Game 1, but won Game 2, forcing a decisive Game 3 to determine which ACC team would advance to the NCAA World Series.  Edgington got the start and threw a complete game as the Cavaliers beat Duke 12-2 to earn their sixth trip to the World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.  In that complete game win, Edgington struck out eleven, one strikeout shy of his career high.  This was only the second complete game of his career and was the first complete game by a Virginia pitcher in the NCAA Tournament since 2014.

 

The Cavaliers lost their opening game of the World Series 6-5 vs Florida. The Cavaliers season came to an end following a 4-3 loss to TCU in an elimination game .  In the loss to TCU, Edgington struck out 2 in 2 2/3 innings of relief.  

Despite his stellar season at UVA, Edington went undrafted in the MLB (Major League Baseball) Draft in June.  Edgington joined the West Virginia Black Bears in the MLB Draft League (the same league the Trenton Thunder play in).  Due to his long collegiate season, Edgington joined the league late and only pitched in two games for the Black Bears, going 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings pitched with 11 strikeouts.  Edgington went on to get signed as an undrafted player by the Reds on August 4 ^th.

 

Edgington is currently playing for the ACL Reds, the Rookie Affiliate of the Cincinnati Reds.  Edgington is 1-0 for the ACL Reds with 12 strikeouts in eight innings pitched.

 

Former Coach Carella is not surprised at the success Edgington has been able to achieve.  “We could tell he was going to have a chance to pitch at the next level after Mercer and I could not be happier for him right now.  It was a long road to get to where he is and he certainly earned his way there.”

 

In his five year collegiate career, Edgington appeared in 62 games with 47 starts and struck out 280 batters in 279 innings pitched. Edgington earned All-Conference honors at both Elon and UVA as well as All-Academic honors at both universities.  In 2021, Edgington was named to the CAA Commission’s Academic Honor Roll while at Elon and in 2023, Edgington was named to the ACC All-Academic Team while at UVA. 

 

Edgington’s journey shows that through hard work on both the field and classroom, you can achieve success.  Mercer was one stop on this long journey to the University of Virginia, the NCAA World Series and an opportunity with the Cincinnati Reds.

 

Brian Edgington on the 2019 MCCC Baseball Team

 

(Photo courtesy of UVA Athletics)

Edgington pitching in his complete game Super Regional win over Duke

 

(Photo courtesy of UVA Athletics)

Edgington on the mound in the NCAA World Series this June

 

(Photo courtesy of UVA Athletics)

Edgington was signed on a free agent deal by the Reds in early August