Alaska Grown: Conor Spink

The Glacier Pilots are have been looking not just far, but also near, for their recruits for 2010, and have come up with a home-grown product to aid them on the mound this summer. Conor Spink, native of Anchorage suburb Eagle River, has a return engagement with his home-town Pilots.

The local prep star was a four-year letter winner out of Chugiak High, where he was picked first-team all state twice: first at pitcher, then again as a first baseman. Spink made his entrance into college ball in the juco ranks, signing up with Lower Columbia College, which is one of the northwest's more productive junior colleges in terms of developing professional baseball prospects.

After excelling at LCC, Spink moved up to Division 1 with the Redhawks of Seattle University. In his first year with the Hawks, as a Junior, Spink has been used both as a starter and out of the pen, making 7 starts in 12 overall appearances so far on the year.

Spink has seen ABL play before; as a freshman in 2008, he was a member of the Glacier Pilots' ABL champion squad, though he didn't figure into the team's run in Wichita that year. During the regular season, Spink made three appearances in long relief, logging 12.1 IP. He'll be home for the summer again this year, and he'll take another run at improving on the numbers he put up for his hometown team in his first campaign (4.38 ERA, 1.382 WHIP, .300 BAA).

Can Conor come back to Anchorage and put up a strong showing for the scouts and hometown fans alike? With the season less than a month away now, the time to find out is just around the corner. In the mean time, you might want to get caught up on some of the other Glacier Pilots recruits coming up for 2010, such as Clay Cederquist and Kevin Lusson.