Fort Mill’s Netzer promoted to Class A

After a short month in rookie baseball, former Fort Mill High graduate Brett Netzer has been promoted to the Class A Greenville Drive.

Netzer, who was drafted in the third round of this year’s Major League Draft by the Boston Red Sox, was assigned last week to Greenville of the South Atlantic League. Netzer played in 22 games for the Lowell Spinners of the New York-Penn League from July 4 to Aug. 1 before he was called up by the Drive, who play their home games right across the street from Greenville High School.

Netzer, a junior shortstop at UNC-Charlotte, was taken as the 101st pick overall and became the highest pick in the draft by a former Fort Mill player eclipsing former high school teammate Kevin “K.J.” Woods. Woods was taken in the fourth round of the 2013 MLB Draft as the 112th overall pick. Netzer is the first Fort Mill-based baseball player taken since the Oakland A’s took pitcher Andrew Tomasovich in 2015.

While in Lowell, Netzer hit .317 with 14 RBI in 82 at-bats. He also had a .390 slugging percentage and an on-base percentage of .376 before being called up. In the field, Netzer played at second base in 19 games and had a .975 fielding percentage.

Two others injured

Tomasovich also has playing in Class A, for the Oakland A’s organization between Beloit and Stockton. Beloit is part of the Midwest League and Stockton is part of the California League. He had a 3-3 record in Stockton with a 3.97 ERA in 21 games and a 1-0 record in six games with a 0.0 ERA in Beloit. He is currently on the disabled list for Stockton.

Woods, who spent part of last year between Class A for both the Miami Marlins and the Chicago White Sox, has not played at all this season due to injury and was put on the 60-day disabled list by Kannapolis back in April.

This story was originally published August 7, 2017 at 2:16 PM with the headline "Fort Mill’s Netzer promoted to Class A."