University of Evansville baseball coach Wes Carroll continued to round out his first recruiting class as head coach today, as he announced the signing of middle infield prospect Eric Stamets (Dublin, Ohio/Dublin Scioto) and right-handed pitcher Sam Johns (Bethalto, Ill./Civic Memorial) to National Letters of Intent.

“We are excited to be able to sign two players the caliber of Eric and Sam during the summer signing session,” said Carroll.  “We expect both men to be able to come in and compete for a prominent role on our team this year as freshmen.”

Stamets will likely contend for a role on UE’s middle infield this spring after a break-out senior campaign at Dublin Scioto High School outside of Columbus, where he earned second team all-Ohio honors as a senior.  An outstanding athlete who also shined in football and basketball for the Irish, Stamets set five single-season team records this past spring as a senior, while hitting .541 with four home runs, nine triples and 27 RBI.  He also went a perfect 15-for-15 in the stolen base department on his way to earning Columbus Dispatch All-Metro Team honors and first team all-Central District honors.

“Eric is an all-around athlete who possesses great speed and explosiveness,” said Carroll.  “He has many great tools on the baseball field that are going to make him a special player for us.  I look forward to Eric competing for the shortstop position this fall.”

Johns comes to UE after a record-setting career at Civic Memorial High School in Bethalto, Illinois outside of St. Louis.  Johns set the Civic Memorial career record for strikeouts, and has ranked among the St. Louis metro area leaders in strikeouts each of the past two years.  A two-time team Most Valuable Player, Johns went 9-2 this past year with a 1.93 ERA and 86 strikeouts in just 58.0 innings of work, to rank among the St. Louis metro area leaders for victories (tied for third) and strikeouts (tied for 10th).

“Sam is a very athletic right-handed pitcher with a quick arm,” said Carroll.  “He has an explosive slider and he has the tendency to miss a lot of bats.  Hopefully, he can continue that trend at the college level, especially after we lost Wade Kapteyn to the Major League draft in June.”

Stamets and Johns will join fellow summer signees Chris Pearson (Greenwood, Ind./Center Grove) and John Day (Barrington, Ill./Barrington) and fall signees Scott Scheumann (Ft. Wayne, Ind./Bishop Dwenger), Josh Biggs (Valparaiso, Ind./Washington Township), Kyle Lloyd (Carmel, Ind./Carmel), Adam Culiver (Newburgh, Ind./Castle), Jake Naumann (Naperville, Ill./North), Ryan Pierce (Jeffersonville, Ind./Jeffersonville) and Ryan Oesterle (Peoria, Ariz./Scottsdale C.C.) to form Carroll’s first recruiting class as head coach of the Purple Aces.  Carroll led UE to a 25-30 overall record in his first year as head coach, with the 25 victories ranking as the second-highest victory total by a first-year baseball coach in UE history.  Evansville will return 19 players from last year’s squad this spring, including all-Missouri Valley Conference picks Cody Fick, Andy Pascoe and Tom Heithoff.