Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Saints sending four to next level
SPRINGDALE — Kellen Pate stepped foot on the Northwestern University campus and immediately felt a connection.
On Wednesday the Shiloh Christian senior right-handed pitcher made it official when he signed a letter of intent to play baseball for the Wildcats, a member of the Big Ten Conference. Northwestern’s campus is located just outside of Chicago in
Evanston, Ill.
“This was a long journey that started last summer,” Pate said. “I went up there for a tournament, and I had never really thought about going there. All I knew about it was my dad went to grad school there and loved it. So we were up there and I said we might as well go check it out. As soon as I got on campus, I immediately fell in love with it.”
Pate was one of four Shiloh Christian baseball players to sign Wednesday, three of those to Division I programs in three different states.
Saints shortstop Marcus Brown, who has been verbally committed to Kentucky for a long time, flipped to Oklahoma State and signed with the Cowboys. Left-handed pitcher Walker Williams, who pitched the Saints to the
Class 4A state title game last spring, signed with Arkansas State. Slugging third baseman Sawyer Duddleston signed a letter of intent with Arkansas Tech.
Pate had a 3.01 ERA as a starter last season and struck out 61 batters over 38 innings with just 15 walks.
“I went to a prospect camp there last summer and never looked back,” said Pate, who had several other offers from programs like Wichita State, Louisiana-Lafayette and others. “This will be a big move. I wanted to get the best academic experience possible while at the same time getting the best baseball experience. I’ll get both at Northwestern.”
Brown said a change in coaches at Kentucky prompted him to reopen his recruitment, and he weighed the multitude of offers from schools like TCU, Auburn and Oklahoma State.
“There was just a lot of movement at Kentucky from assistant coaches to transfers to decomittments, so I wanted to step back and re-assess the decision,” Brown said. “Kentucky is an awesome school still and I was still considering them for sure.
“Oklahoma State has a great coaching staff, great facilities, great people over there. I just felt like it would be a great place for me to succeed.”
Brown batted .406 for the Saints last season as a top-ofthe-order hitter. Brown has gap power as his 15 doubles attest, but he also has some pop with 3 triples and 3 home runs last season to go along with a .521 on-base percentage. He also saw some mound time last season and posted a 2.23 ERA with 47 strikeouts over 32 innings.
Williams has been verbally committed to Arkansas State for more than a year and had no doubt he was going to be a Red Wolf when the time came to sign.
“I’ve loved the school and the coaches there for a really long time,” Williams said. “It’s a really positive environment and I feel like it will help me as a player.”
Williams led the Saints last season as both a pitcher and a position player. He compiled a 1.32 ERA to go along with 113 strikeouts over 68 innings with 39 walks. In the field, Williams batted .414 with 7 doubles and 2 home runs.
“Every time that I visited, I just knew that this was the place for me,” Williams said. “Hopefully I can get in there and make an impact as soon as I can.”