Vol. X No. 5
Nov/Dec 2016
Copperheads Announce 2017 CPL Schedule
Open At Home May 30 vs. Martinsville
The Asheboro Copperheads will open the 2017 Coastal Plain League
season at home on Tuesday night, May 30, against the Martinsville
Mustangs.
The Copperheads will once again play a 56-game regular season that
runs through Aug. 7. The 28-game first half slate will conclude with a
home game on Saturday night, July 1, vs. the defending league champion
Savannah Bananas, with the second half opener at home on Sunday night,
July 2, vs. the Forest City Owls. The Owls will also be the opponent for the
Aug. 7 regular season finale at home.
Unlike the past several seasons when the West Division Copperheads
have played every team in the league at least once, the 2017 schedule
includes only five games against East Division teams and four of those are
vs. the Holly Springs Salamanders. The only other out-of-division opponent
will be the Wilmington Sharks, who will visit McCrary Park for the annual
Fourth of July game. In addition to a big fireworks show after the Tuesday,
July 4 game vs. the Sharks, there will also be fireworks on Saturday night,
June 3 when the High Point-Thomasville Hi-Toms come to town for
Veterans Appreciation Night.
The CPL has opted for a 2017 schedule that reduces travel for all teams
See Complete Schedule On 2nd Page
and is weighted heavily with divisional matchups. The Copperheads will
play arch-rival High Point-Thomasville 16 times and Martinsville 12 times,
giving them half of their 56 total games against their two geographically
closest divisional opponents.
After opening the season with the Mustangs on May 30, the
Copperheads will visit the Hi-Toms on May 31 before returning home to
McCrary Park to face Holly Springs on June 1, then get an off day on Friday
before the Hi-Toms visit on Saturday night, June 3.
The schedule features a total of seven Saturday night home games, six
of those consecutively beginning on Saturday, June 24. There will be only
two Friday night home games, but five Thursday night games at McCrary
Park. The Copperheads will play at home just once on Sunday, that coming
on July 2 vs. Forest City.
The CPL All-Star festivities will be in Holly Springs on Sunday and
Monday, July 9-10. The post-season will begin on Wednesday, Aug. 9.
The first round of the playoffs will be a single-game elimination with the
semifinals and finals being best-of-three series.
In addition to the Fourth of July and Veterans Appreciation Night, other
special promotional dates will be announced in the near future.
C-heads Complete
2017 Coaching Staff
Connor Lind
Colin Rosenbaum
At Least 10
Plan To Return
Next Summer
Ten players who were part of this past
summer’s Asheboro Copperheads team that
won 19 of its first 25 games and earned the
first-half title in the CPL West Division, have
committed to return for the 2017 season and
that number could increase as the college
season progresses in the spring.
Already agreeing to return for a second
summer in Asheboro are infielders Connor
Lind of Northwestern, Colin Rosenbaum
of Belmont Abbey, Derek Perry of Pfeiffer
(Conintued on next page)
Two former teammates of new Copperheads
head coach Taylor Bratton – one of whom played
with him in Asheboro and another from his
college days at West Alabama – have been added
to the coaching staff for the 2017 Coastal Plain
League season.
Bratton, who was named head coach in
mid-September and spent 2012 and 2013 as a
member of the Copperheads pitching staff, has
tabbed former Asheboro teammate John Harris
and West Alabama alum Jocobby Robinson as his
assistants. Bratton and Robinson were teammates
for two seasons at UWA, while Harris, a graduate
of Gardner-Webb, played with Bratton on
Asheboro’s 2012 team.
Harris, 26, was born in California but grew
up in Kennesaw, GA before playing collegiately
at Gardner-Webb, where he was named All-Big
South in 2012 and Best Defensive Catcher in the
Big South in 2013. He started 26 games for the
Copperheads in the summer of 2012. He later
played professionally in the independent Frontier
League. After his stint in pro ball, Harris has
served as a volunteer coach in the collegiate ranks
and also coached travel youth teams in Georgia.
He currently works for National Scouting Report,
a national high school scouting and college
recruiting service
which
evaluates
high school athletes and steers
them to colleges
John Harris
and
universities
best suited for
their athletic skill
level and academic
qualifications. He
will coach third
base and serve as
hitting coach for
the Copperheads.
“ H a v i n g
played with John
in Asheboro and
given his experJocobby Robinson
ience in the CPL,
it was an easy decision for me to ask him to be
part of the staff,” Bratton said. “His offensive
knowledge and pro experience as a catcher will
be a huge asset.”
Robinson, a 25-year old native of Meridian,
MS, served as a volunteer assistant for one season
at UWA and also spent a summer as a youth
(Conintued on next page)
Buy 2017 Season Tickets Now at a Discount - Call (336) 460-7018
Visit our website at www.teamcopperhead.com
Buy 2017 Season Passes Before
End of Calendar Year & Save!
2017 Schedule
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
MAY/JUNE 30M 31@HT 1
HS
Fri
2
3
Monday, May 29
Exh. vs. Post 45
Sat
HT
4
5
6
7
8
9
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
FC
@M
@FC @M
2nd Half
Starts
July 2
2
@FC @FL
M
HT
@HT
@M
HT
5
6
10Fan Fest
99- CPL All-Star
10 - CPL All-Star Game
@ Holly Springs
11
12
16
17
3
18
23
24
30
31
6
7
@FC
HT
@HS
@FC
@HT
@HS
M
@G
FC
10
@HT
@G
G
30
HS @HT M @LC FL
JULY/AUGUST
4
FC
HT
1
S
7
8
13
14
15
19
20
21
22
25
26
27
28
29
1
2
3
4
5
WM
FL
@HT
FL - Florence
FC - Forest City
G - Gastonia
HT
HT
M
@HT
LC
@M
@FC
@HT
@G
FC
@M
G
HT
M
M
@S @G @LC
Petitt Cup Playoffs
Aug. 8-16
HT - HP-Thomasville
LC - Lexington County
M - Martinsville
S - Savannah
HS - Holly Springs
WM - Wilmington
Returning Players
(continued)
and Jeremy Simpson of Catawba; outfielder
Kyle Smith of Catawba; catchers Vito Friscia
of Hofstra and Zach Duff of Radford; and
pitchers Bryan Blanton of Catawba, Jacob
Craver of Charlotte and Devin Sweet of North
Carolina Central.
Smith, who played his American Legion
ball with Randolph County Post 45, and
Rosenbaum, a Trinity High graduate, were two
of the team’s leading hitters in 2016. Smith
finished with five homers, a team-best .322
batting average and earned a berth on the AllCPL second team, while Rosenbaum batted
.312 despite battling through some nagging
injuries throughout the summer. Lind also
made a vital contribution to the offense hitting
.289 with 12 extra base hits. Perry started 36
games, mostly at second, and also provided
some clutch hits, while Friscia belted four
homers and was third on the team in RBIs.
Duff was Friscica’s backup behind the dish, but
contributed three homers and had nine RBIs on
2016 Season Ticket Holders Must Call By
Dec. 31 To Secure Same Seats For 2017
Asheboro Copperheads season tickets for 2017 are now on sale at reduced
prices through the end of the calendar year.
Reserved grandstand seats, regularly priced at $130, can be purchased before
Dec. 31, 2016 for $99 each. Also, general admission season passes, regularly $99,
are only $79 through the end of the year.
Reserved seat ticket holders from 2016 have through Dec. 31 to claim their
same seats, but after that all unclaimed seats will be available to be purchased on a
first-come, first-served basis.
The Copperheads also have general admission “High 5” Fang Passes and
“Hang 10” Fang Passes available for the 2017 season. “High 5” passes are good for
five general admissions and are $20 each, while “Hang 10” passes are good for 10
general admissions and are priced at $30 each.
To purchase tickets, please call the Copperheads at (336) 460-7018.
Former Copperhead Brandon Warren Recuperating
The Asheboro Copperheads would like encourage everyone to keep former
player Brandon Warren in their thoughts and prayers.
Brandon, a pitcher from Barton College who played for the Copperheads in
2012, 2013 and 2014, was diagnosed a couple of months ago with synovial sarcoma,
a very rare and aggressive form of cancer. The diagnosis necessitated the amputation
of his left foot just above the ankle, which was done at the Duke Cancer Center on
Oct. 26. Brandon is currently recuperating at his parents’ home in Murfreesboro, NC
and undergoing rehab. He expects to be fitted for a prosthesis within the next three
weeks and hopes to return to a more normal daily routine in the very near future.
If you’d like to send Brandon a personal message, visit his Facebook page and
post your well wishes, or send him a private message via Facebook Messenger.
consecutive nights during a late-season road trip
to Savannah and Lexington County that produced
a couple of big wins. Smith (5/28), Friscia (4/22),
Lind (3/19), Duff (3/14), Rosenbaum (1/19) and
Perry (1/13) combined for 17 home runs and 115
RBIs.
Sweet, who played his high school ball at
nearby Southeast Guilford, pitched only half the
season and went 4-1 with a 3.43 ERA. He was
rewarded for his efforts by being named second
team All-CPL team at the end of the season.
Blanton made the mid-season West Division
all-star team and finished the season with seven
saves, while Craver pitched in 16 games and
went 1-0 with a 4.09 ERA.
Although additional player signings will not
be announced until after the new year, the 2017
roster is expected to include at least several
players who played their high school ball in
Randolph County.
Coaching Staff
will coach first base and work with infielders
and outfielders for the Copperheads.
“Jocobby is a young, energetic coach,”
added Bratton. “As teammates at UWA we
had discussed possibly coaching together in
the future. He has experience playing both the
infield and outfield and his ‘small ball’ approach
as a player should be helpful to us.”
“I’m very excited to have both of them
joining me next summer in Asheboro,” Bratton
said. “We all have similar approaches to the
game and I think we’re going to have an
exciting summer together.”
(continued)
coach with Golden Spikes Baseball. This fall he
served as an assistant with the Ontario Blue Jays,
a Canadian Junior National team that toured both
the United States and Canada playing collegiate
teams. Additionally, Robinson has worked in the
business field during and between his part-time
coaching stints. An outfielder at UWA, Robinson
was an All-Gulf South Conference player as a
senior in 2014 when he hit .364, made just two
errors and led the team in stolen bases. Robinson