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Sports

Majors Calling Former DeKalb Baseball Players

Three of the four athletes joining the major leagues are Redan graduates.

The 2011 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft spread 50 rounds over three days this week and came away with four former DeKalb County baseball players getting a call from major league teams.

The first former DeKalb player picked was outfielder Patrick Smith (6-0,170) from Redan who was taken by Detroit in the 14th round as the 437th pick. He was an integral part of Redan’s 2010 Class AAAAA playoff run to the Final Four.

Smith who was drafted by the Boston Red Sox as the 1,313th pick a year ago as a graduating senior from Redan moved his draft status up almost 900 spots after batting .303 with 48 RBI, 13 doubles and 10 stolen bases in 12 attempts as a freshman at Middle Georgia College in 2011.

The second of three former Redan players taken in the draft was graduating senior shortstop Deion Williams (6-3, 190) who got the call in the 16th round by the Washington Nationals as the 487th pick of the draft. Williams, the preseason #5 ranked player in Georgia, is a signee with Santa Fe College in Gainesville, Florida and will make the decision between going pro or continuing his education at Santa Fe.

Williams was the starting shortstop on Redan’s Class AAAAA Final Four team in 2010 and batted .350 with 1 homerun, 7 doubles, 20 RBI and 26 runs scored as the Raiders reached the Class AAAA state playoffs in 2011.

Georgia Southern senior center fielder RaShawn Payne (6-1, 190) was the third Redan grad to get the call in the 2011 MLB Draft as the defending World Champion San Francisco Giants picked him up in the 35th round and the 1,077th pick overall.

Payne finished the 2011 season at Georgia Southern batting .314 with 39 RBI and 6 homers. He hit .494 in four years at Redan and was also selected the South MVP of the 2007 DeKalb County Senior All-Star Classic after going 4-5 with 5 RBI in the double-header. He hit for the collective cycle in the two games with a single, double, triple and homerun. It was the third consecutive year for Payne to be selected including 2010 and 2009.

The fourth DeKalb County selection came in the form of former Dunwoody outfielder/pitcher Chris Epps (6-0, 190) of Clemson University. The Houston Astros took Epps in the 45th round as the 1,360th pick of the draft. He was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 28th round of the 2007 draft.

Epps finished the season strong for Clemson as the Co-Captain hit .292 with 42 RBI, 10 homeruns and was 11 of 14 in stolen base attempts after a slow start to the 2011 season. Epps played a key role as pitcher and outfielder in Dunwoody’s 2007 Class AAA state championship.

Mark Brock is the Athletics Statistician and Information Officer for DeKalb County Schools Athletics.

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