April 20, 2009

HATTIESBURG, Miss. - Southern Miss head baseball coach Corky Palmer announced today that LHP Partick Corbin and RHP Geoffrey Thomas have signed their national letter of intent and grant-in-aid to play for the Black and Gold next season.

"I feel like both of these players can help us almost immediately," head coach Corky Palmer said. "We are always looking for quality pitching and both this players should add overall depth to our pitching staff."

Patrick Corbin will transfer to Southern Miss from Chipola Community College, one of the nations top junior college programs. This season at Chipola he is 5-2, throwing three complete games and one complete game shutout while allowing 26 earned runs in 54.1 innings pitched. He has struck out 68 hitters while walking only 20 in 11 games.

Baseball America has him as the No. 10 ranked junior college prospect in the nation. He is a 6'3" left-handed pitcher that features fast ball in the 88-92 MPH range with a plus slider, who pitched his freshman season at Mohawk Valley Community College in Rome, NY.

A native of Syracuse, NY, Corbin earned first team all-state and all-league honors at Cicero North Syracuse high, which was the No.1 ranked team in the state of New York. As a senior in 2007, he was 8-0 with 76 strikeouts in 47 innings, allowing only 33 hits and 16 runs. He was 14-0 in his high school career with 139 strikeouts.

"Patrick is one of the better junior college pitchers in the nation, he should contend for a spot in the weekend rotation immediately," Palmer added.

Thomas comes to Hattiesburg out of Stephenson High School in Stone Mountain, Georgia. He is a 6'2", 185 pound right-handed pitcher playing for coach Eric Hosie at SHS where he carries a 0.51 ERA in 27.2 innings thus far this season with 48 strikeouts and 23 walks. He is 3-2 on a team that in 3-9 overall this season. He was named the team MVP in both 2008 and 2006 while earning all-county honors in 2007 and 2008.

Prior to the 2009 season he was named to the Rawlings/Perfect Game USA Preseason All-Region Team. Thomas has also participated in the Major League Baseball Inaugural Breakthrough Series and was a MLB Urban Academy All-Star selection in 2008.

"Geoffrey is a young player with a good arm. He has shown signs of a promising career once he gets to Southern Miss," Palmer said.

The Golden Eagles have now signed seven players including high schoolers Jared Bales (C-Picayune HS/Picayune, Miss.), Dillon Day (LHP- Duchtown, HS/Geismas, La.), Chase Fowler (C- South Forsyth HS/Cumming Ga.) and Chase Wroten (RHP -Hillcrest Christian HS/ Jackson, Miss.) along with Junior College transfer Marc Bourgeois (OF-Chipola CC/Montreal, Quebec).

-southermiss.com-