Lewisville’s Stewart and Moseley not ready to give up baseball
Lewisville baseball coach Billy Keels asked senior Denver Moseley about a month ago what he wanted to do after high school and he said “I’m gonna work!”
Keels asked Drew Stewart the same question, and Stewart said he was going to Clemson.
At the Summit restaurant Wednesday in downtown Chester, both players signed to play college baseball. Moseley will play two years at USC-Salkehatchie, and Stewart will head to Anderson University.
“I think both of them realized they didn’t want to give it up,” Keels said. “I guess you don’t really know how important it is to you until you see it ending, maybe?”
A month ago, Moseley hadn’t received any recruiting interest, so he planned to join his father’s landscaping business after graduation. Whenever his dad stepped down, Moseley would take over the company.
Keels took Moseley and the three other Lewisville baseball seniors to a USC-Salkehatchie game in early March, giving them an idea of what college baseball looked like. Keels said Moseley came up to him after the Lions were eliminated from the state playoffs; Moseley had changed his mind.
“I felt like baseball was a part of my identity, and it wasn’t time to give it up yet,” said Moseley.
Keels had heard that Stewart was going to Clemson but never brought up college baseball with him. But that changed after a Pfeiffer (N.C.) coach scouted a Lewisville game and asked Keels about his speedy leadoff man, Stewart. The Pfeiffer coach and Stewart began to communicate, and Keels began to contact coaches in South Carolina, including Anderson.
This was always a dream of mine since I was a 5-year old in the backyard playing whiffle ball.
Lewisville senior and USC-Salkehatchie baseball recruit Denver Moseley
Stewart had a one-hour tryout with Anderson coaches – that’s legal at the NCAA Division II level – and they liked his speed. Stewart’s chance to play college ball was the culmination of seemingly endless hardwork and improvement. He hit 300 repetitions on a batting tee almost every day of his senior year, which helped shorten his swing.
Stewart – who has a 3.8 GPA – will study special education at Anderson and wants to be a coach.
Former Lewisville baseball player Austin Bradshaw had an influence on Moseley’s decision. Bradshaw signed with USC-Salkehatchie last year, and his presence at the two-year school in Allendale offered a degree of comfort to his friend. Bradshaw also came through for Moseley on Wednesday, offering his more sizable former and future teammate a USC-Salkehatchie polo shirt to wear during the signing event.
This story was originally published June 1, 2016 at 6:28 PM with the headline "Lewisville’s Stewart and Moseley not ready to give up baseball."