Tommy Parsons, who starred for the Adrian College baseball team on the mound from 2015-18 and is currently in his third season in the St. Louis Cardinals organization, has been named to the D3baseball All-Decade First Team for the 2010s. The website made the announcement on Wednesday. Parsons is the only representative out of the MIAA.
Parsons was one of just nine pitchers honored on the first team and among 82 players selected overall. The D3baseball.com 2010’s All-Decade team was selected by D3baseball.com staff and The Podcast About Division III Baseball.
He tops that list with a season’s worth of wins–40–and that ranks fourth in NCAA Division III history. The 40 victories are the most by any Division III pitcher in the last 17 years–second only to former Major Leaguer and D3baseball All-Decade 2000’s member Matt DeSalvo who went 53-6 for Marietta College from 1999 to 2003.
‘It’s such an honor to be named an all-decade pitcher and to be able to represent Adrian and the whole baseball team means so much to me,” stated Parsons. “I wouldn’t have been able to get this honor if it wasn’t for the position players on the team scoring runs and making plays for me. Also, the pitchers for just being a great group all four years to work with and push me and each other to be the best we can as a whole staff. Coaches (Craig) Rainey, (Aaron) Klotz, (Charlie) Solis, Luke (Harris), Bobby (McLaughlin) and Toby (Ernst) let me go out there and compete and be myself while also guiding me to be the best that I can, so a lot of credit goes to them as well. And it all just goes back to the amazing teams I was a small part of for my four years.”
Rainey added: “The D3baseball All-Decade Team is another outstanding accomplishment in Tommy Parsons’ career at Adrian College. He is so very deserving of this award, his work ethic and competitive nature landed him on this elite list. He dominated D3 for four straight years which is what you have to do to make a list like this. The pitchers that are on this list–which we have seen–are the best of D3. This is a huge honor for Tommy and also our baseball program.”
During his Adrian tenure, the business management graduate was a four-time All-American (including American Baseball Coaches’ Association All-America First Team and D3baseball.com All-America Second Team in 2018; third-team by both organizations in 2017), Mideast Pitcher of the Year by both the ABCA and D3baseball as a senior, three-time all-region by those organizations, Google Cloud Academic All-America® Third Team by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA) and three-time MIAA Pitcher of the Year.
Parsons ended his AC career as the NCAA all-Divisions active career leader with 40 wins against only four losses, including a personal 23-game winning streak. As a junior, he went 44.1 innings without issuing a walk for what is believed to be a NCAA III record. He owns school records for career ERA (2.21), career victories (40), career games started (44), career complete games (24), career shutouts (7), career innings pitched (322.0) and he is second all-time in both strikeouts (288) and fewest walks allowed per 9 innings (1.01). He also set a school record with 12 wins in 2017 to lead the nation and struck out 109 a year later for another benchmark.
Parsons has parlayed his excellence in the college game to playing baseball at the professional level. The tall right-hander went from being undrafted and signed as a free agent by the Cardinals in 2018 to reaching Triple-A last summer, starting a game for the Memphis Redbirds of the Pacific Coast League against the Iowa Cubs. In February, he also received an invitation to the St. Louis major league spring training camp in Jupiter, Fla., as the organization’s 21st-best prospect to begin 2020.
The 2019 campaign saw Parsons’ stock rise with four promotions.
The New Albany, Ohio, resident went 4-6 with a 5.29 earned-run average in 14 starts for Double-A Springfield of the Texas League before his call-up to the Redbirds. But his impressive numbers were 77 strikeouts in 83.1 innings against only 13 walks while holding opponents to a .276 batting average and 1.25 WHIP.
Before Springfield, Parsons pitched at the Single-A Advanced level with Palm Beach of the Florida State League. He posted a 3-2 mark, 2.13 ERA, 39 strikeouts, seven walks, .246 opponents’ average and 1.13 WHIP in 42.1 innings pitched. He started in seven games.
Parsons began 2019 at Single-A (full season) Peoria in the Midwest League, going 4-0 with a sparkling 0.26 ERA and 26 strikeouts in 35 innings. His WHIP was 0.54 and opponents hit just .120 against him.
For his minor league career over 40 appearances (36 games started) to span 222.2 innings, he has compiled a 16-10 record with a 3.40 ERA and 191 strikeouts while limiting opponents to a .248 batting average and 1.12 WHIP.
Today, the COVID-19 pandemic canceled the Minor League Baseball schedule. But that doesn’t stop Parsons from honing his skills and waiting for another call that guides his professional baseball future.
“Getting the season taken away from me was really just a lot to handle,” said Parsons, who was 11-8 with a 3.36 ERA and 142 strikeouts in 160.2 innings with Peoria, Palm Beach and Springfield combined in 2019 before making his Triple-A debut with Memphis. “But I think I’m doing a great job of staying ready in case of injuries or illness or anything that can happen to the guys on the big league squad or taxi squad. I’m just working out and throwing every weekday in Columbus with Ryan Clark who plays in the (Los Angeles) Angels’ organization. We get on the mound for a bullpen once a week and then face some local guys in live at-bats once a week. Other days, we just long-toss and work out and try to stay ready and motivated for 2021.”
This article is comprised of information and media from a press release generated by Adrian College’s sports information department. For more sports, news and entertainment, follow us on Twitter @MWSNsports or like our page on Facebook.
