Montevallo’s Garcia Set to Play in Valley Baseball League’s All-Star Game

WINCHESTER, Va. - Upcoming senior Kevin Garcia (Vega Baja, Puerto Rico/Gulf Coast C.C.) of the University of Montevallo baseball team has been named to the Valley Baseball League's North All-Star Team. He was selected at first base despite playing third base, shortstop and catcher for the Montevallo in 2009. The game is set to take place on Sunday, July 12 at 7:30 p.m.

Other activities associated with the All-Star game will be a home run derby as well as a 60-yard dash competition.

Garcia currently leads his team, the Winchester Royals, in RBIs with 22 and is fourth in the league in the same category. He leads the league in sacrifice flies with 6.

There are only six players including Garcia from the Peach Belt Conference in the VBL. Garcia and Anders Oster from UNC-Pembroke are the only two PBC players to make the All-Star roster.

The Valley League was formed in 1923 and became an NCAA-sanctioned league in 1961. Although the NCAA no longer has direct involvement with summer leagues, the league still operates under NCAA rules.  The league adopted wooden bats in 1993.

The VBL is funded in part by a grant from Major League Baseball and is a member of the National Alliance of College Summer Baseball, a national affiliation of summer leagues.  The league has produced well over 1,000 professional baseball players, including a record 79 former players drafted in the most recent Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft in June, 2008.

The Valley League name is derived from the beautiful Shenandoah Valley, which is nestled between the Blue Ridge Mountains to the east and the Allegheny Mountains to the west.

The league currently plays a 44-game schedule beginning in early June or late May with playoffs beginning in the last week of July and extending into early August. Each of the top two finishers in the three divisions, along with two wild-card teams, will make up the 2009 playoff field.