Salem’s Hunter King will be flying to Florida the first weekend of October to compete in a national tournament for 18 and under baseball teams. Hunter will be part of the “Baseball U.” team for the tournament, which will be held October 1-5.
“Baseball U.” is an organization out of New Jersey that also has franchises in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland and, just recently, in Virginia. Salem’s Charlie Goens has started a franchise here and has teams for 9-U, 11-U and 18-U players.
“I met the owner of Baseball U. when I was coaching college ball,” said Goens, who is an assistant in the Salem High program. “I felt like if we had a franchise here it would give our kids a chance to play national talent without traveling to Richmond or other places farther away. It helps cut out on the cost for parents.”
Charlie has three Salem boys and eight Glenvar boys on the U-18 team. John Wells, the Baseball U. national coach for that age group, reached out to Charlie to see if he had anyone interested in trying out for the national team and Goens suggested King.
“He looked at some film of Hunter and selected him to play on the team,” said Goens. “Baseball U. gets a spot in this tournament every year.”
Hunter will be a middle infielder and thirdbaseman for the team. He’ll be flying to Florida next week with his dad, Salem High athletic director Chris King. Neither one has ever flown in an airplane.
“I’m looking forward to it,” said Chris. “It’s too far to drive.”
Hunter is the only boy from Virginia on the national team. The local 18-U Baseball U. team will play this weekend when they participate in a tournament at Kiwanis Field. Goens coaches the 18-U team, made up of 15 to 18 year old boys.
“We wanted to have a 15-16 team but we didn’t get enough so we combined the two,” he said. “Hopefully we’ll have a 15-16 team in the future.”
Salem High’s Jimmy Winterer coaches the 9U team and Shawn Sweet of Salem coaches the 11-U club. The 9-U team is mostly Salem and Cave Spring kids and the 11-U team is comprised mostly of Salem boys.