Three Hardin-Simmons baseball players are playing in collegiate baseball leagues this summer. Tyler Brunnemann and James Simmons are playing for the Fayetteville Swamp Dogs in the Coastal Plain League in North Carolina.

Brunnemann has been with the Swamp Dogs since June and he is having a great season. He is 1-1 with four saves and has stuck our 16 batters in 12 and 2/3 innings of work in 12 appearances. He has not allowed an earned run and opponents are hitting just .163.

Simmons joined the Swamp Dogs last week and had allowed just one hit in three and two-third innings of work so far out of the bullpen in two appearances.

The team finished second in the first half of the season with a 19-10 record and are 1-0 in the second half. You can follow them here.

Chris Matthews is playing for the Chugiak Eagle River Chinooks in the Alaska League. Through Monday he has appeared in nine games and is hitting .154 with a home run and four RBIs in 26 at-bats.

His team is 9-7 on the year and 1/2 game out of first place. You can keep up with Matthews through this web site.

The following is a brief recap of the season so far from Brunnemann.

HSU Baseball Fans,

I am playing for the Fayetteville Swampdogs in Fayetteville, NC in the Coastal Plain League. We play against 13 other teams in the Coastal Plains League in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. We play in 59 games, not including playoffs, in just over 2 months so there are no breaks, just continuous baseball throughout the summer.

Most of the ball parks we go to are old historic minor league baseball parks. It is really cool to have the chance to play in these parks where many MLB baseball greats have played in the past.

I play with a lot of D1 guys from the Northeast, but there are also guys anywhere from Florida, to Texas, to California. I live with a host family in North Carolina and just waking up and playing baseball every day of the week is a great experience.

The baseball atmosphere here is really fun; we get about 2000 fans a night and the people really get into it and that makes it fun to play in front of. It is a good chance to face some really good competition and be able to get better as a pitcher while playing.

Tyler