Mottl and Boyd Make USA Baseball Cut

June 13, 1998

Clemson’s Ryan Mottl and Patrick Boyd are both among the 26-man roster for the 1998 USA Baseball National Team. The final squad that will travel to the World Championship in Italy will ultimately be cut down to 22 players. Competition will begin on July 21. The 16-team field will be divided into two groups of eight. After playing seven games in the preliminary round, the top four teams in each group will advance to the quarterfinals.

Mottl, a rising junior from Florissant, MO, pitched 5.0 innings as he started against the Canadian National Team at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, AZ on Friday in pre-championship qualifying. He allowed five hits and three runs while striking out five in the red, white, and blue’s 4-3 come-from-behind win. Mottl is 1-0 with a 4.09 ERA in two starts for the USA National Team this summer, which is 6-1. Mottl has a 19-7 career record in two seasons at Clemson.

Boyd, a rising sophomore from Palm Harbor, FL, batted cleanup in the lineup in Friday’s game and played centerfield. Despite going 0-for-3, he is 5-for-15 with four runs and four RBIs in playing all seven games. Boyd was the ACC Rookie-of-the-Year, as he hit .344 with a team-tying best 59 RBIs in ’98.

The two teams will square off again on Saturday and Sunday in Tucson.

Below is Boyd and Mottl’s USA National Team’s up to date stats:

RYAN MOTTL USA National Team StatsYear    ERA     W-L  G-GS    CG  SHO SV  IP     H   R  ER  BB  SO1997    6.21    2-2  8-6     0   0   0   29.0  33  24  20  15  161998    4.09    1-0  2-2     0   0   0   11.0  10   7   5   4  14Total   5.63    3-2 10-8     0   0   0   40.0  43  31  25  19  30

PATRICK BOYD USA National Team Stats Year AVG G-GS AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB HBP SF OB% SB 1998 .333 7-4 15 4 5 1 0 0 4 6 4 0 1 .450 0-0