Sam Crosby and Coach Bubba Dorman
By Brantley Strickland
Picture by Sheila Smoak
USC Salkehatchie head baseball coach Bubba Dorman doesn’t mince words when it comes to his feelings about Indians sophomore designated hitter Sam Crosby.“If I had 30 guys like Sam Crosby, we’d win the national championship,” Dorman said Friday. “He’s a young man with a tremendous spirit and a great attitude. You can’t have enough of those guys around.”Those credentials, among others, were enough to earn the former Colleton County High School player the Dannelly-Baxter Coaches Award for the 2010 baseball season.
The honor, given only sparing to players who meet its rigorous criteria, is perhaps the most sought after award within Salk’s program.“The award is something that (assistant) Coach (Jeff) Wicker, and I decided we would do,” Dorman said. “It’s pretty special. This is only the second time we have given one out in five years, and most of it is based off of work ethic, being a team player, having an ability to be coached and go the extra mile. A lot of extra things go into that, but we felt like Sam more than met that. We haven’t had a young man come though here in a while with the spirit that he has.”Not bad for a player who didn’t start on his high school team, was cut from his American Legion club and played only sparingly as a walk-on for the Indians over the past two seasons.Still, it was a love of the game and willingness to improve that impressed Dorman the most.
“Sam wasn’t a young man that played a whole lot for us, but he was a young man who spent a whole lot of time sitting down with me looking at film, and he spent a whole lot of time in the cage with Coach Wicker,” Dorman said. “He really made a bunch of strides, and it was because he’s got a work ethic that quite honestly you don’t see in a whole lot of young people these days. By the time he left here, he’d actually become a pretty doggone god hitter.”Crosby batted .250 in 24 at-bats for the 2010 season, appearing in 15 games. He also showed respectable power numbers in limited play with two doubles and a home run in his final game, a start at designated hitter against rival Spartanburg Methodist.
“This was probably Sam’s only chance to play college baseball, Dorman said. “He worked hard, and he hung in there long enough to get some playing time. He ran one out of there. It was just a testament to his hard work and dedication.”
