Hoag, Hoerner, and Palace will Represent the Mallards this Summer
By: Kyle Tooley
The Madison Mallards have added three California natives to their 2016 roster as Chase Hoag (Fresno State University), Nico Hoerner (Stanford University), and Nate Palace (Valparaiso University) have all signed with the club.
Hoag, a 5’10,” 190-pound right-hander, will join the green and yellow following his first season at Fresno State. The junior pitched for two seasons at Glendale Community College in Southern California before signing with the Bulldogs. At GCC, Hoag pitched in 11 innings, recording an ERA under two and racking up 16 strikeouts. While primarily recruited as a pitcher, Hoag hit .345 at Venice High School across 63 games, displaying his ability to provide offensively as well.
Nico Hoerner is a 5’11,” 190-pound freshman that found much success throughout his high school career. At the conclusion of his senior year, Hoerner finished with a .523 average, adding 103 RBIs and 36 doubles to propel him to the 27th overall ranking in the state according to Perfect Game. Hoerner was a two-time league MVP and two-time Max Preps California Small School Player of the Year while at Head Royce High School.
Starting all 12 games for the Cardinal so far, the infielder is batting .261 in 46 at-bats while also posting a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage.
Nate Palace, a 6’2,” 200-pound infielder, led the Crusaders in most major categories in 2015. Palace hit .329 with seven home runs, 15 doubles, 39 RBIs and a .529 slugging percentage. On top of that, Palace did not record an error in 38 games, posting a fielding percentage of 1.000.
Prior to Valparaiso, Palace was a four-year letter winner at Oaks Christian High School in Ventura, California where he posted a .389 batting average, .504 on-base percentage, and .505 slugging percentage his senior season.
The Mallards will host their home opener on Friday, June 3rd when they take on the new Northwoods League affiliate Rockford Rivets. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 pm. Single-game tickets for the 2016 season will go on sale at 9:00 am on Saturday, April 30th.
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The Madison Mallards are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League. Playing its 22nd season of summer collegiate baseball in 2016, the Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 18 teams, drawing significantly more fans, in a friendly ballpark experience, than any league of its kind. A valuable training ground for coaches, umpires and front office staff, more than 120 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (WAS) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (CWS), Jordan Zimmermann (DET), Curtis Granderson (NYM), Lucas Duda (NYM) and Ben Zobrist (CHC). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website. For more information, visit www.MallardsBaseball.com