LOVES PARK, Ill. – Josh Hauser became the third former Rivet to join the Frontier League and the second to sign on with Traverse City.
The Beach Bums added Hauser, a Belvidere High School alumnus, who played baseball at Judson University and Elgin Community College before getting a scholarship to play at the University of Tennessee-Martin. He was a career .286 hitter in college and a defensive specialist who was in the running for an NAIA Gold Glove award his freshman year. He made 17 appearances for the Rivets last summer as a utility player and hit .208.
“He’s smooth….he makes all the plays, which is kind of what you’re looking for [in the Frontier League],” Rivets Manager Brain Smith said. “He’s a great kid. We loved having him last summer. We wanted to keep him all year because of his flexibility.”
Hauser is the fifth Rivet who has made steps towards professional baseball. Michael Smith, David Cronin, and Hunter Hargrove were drafted into the MLB last week and Ricardo Ramirez and Drake Robison signed with Frontier League teams earlier this week.
The Rockford Rivets are a member of the finest developmental league for elite college baseball players, the Northwoods League, which will play its 24th season of summer collegiate baseball in 2017. The Northwoods League is the largest organized baseball league in the world with 20 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, 170 Northwoods League players have advanced to Major League Baseball, including two-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (Washington Nationals), two-time World Champion Ben Zobrist (Chicago Cubs) and MLB All-Stars Chris Sale (Boston Red Sox), Jordan Zimmermann (Detroit Tigers), Curtis Granderson (New York Mets) and Lucas Duda (Mets). All league games are viewable live via the Northwoods League Website, NorthwoodsLeague.com.
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