By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Mebane’s Zack Littell had a heightened workload with the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team this year.
Littell finished the season with an 8-10 record and 3.63 earned run average.
Littell, a soon-to-be 29-year-old, has pitched in parts of seven major league seasons, but this was the right-hander’s first year as a full-time member of a starting rotation. He was a starter for all 29 games he pitched.
Littell received the Paul C. Smith Champion Award, which is presented to the Tampa Bay player who best exemplifies the spirit of true professionalism on and off the field. That award was determined by the Tampa Bay chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America. He joined the Rays in May 2023.
Littell posted victories in three consecutive September starts, including limiting the Boston Red Sox to one hit in seven shutout innings in his last home appearance.
His last start came in Wednesday’s loss at Detroit.
He shared the Rays’ team lead with victories and had by far the most innings pitched on the staff. He was second on the team in strikeouts behind Taj Bradley, who spent time early in the season with the Triple-A Durham Bulls.
So the former Eastern Alamance athlete turned in career highs of 156 1/3 innings with 141 strikeouts. He walked only 31 batters. Littell missed the final half of August as he was on the injured list with shoulder fatigue.
Littell’s career record is 24-21 with a 3.92 ERA.
The Rays’ streak of American League playoff appearances ended at five years. They finished with an 80-82 record.
Ex-Burlington, Elon players on title team
Former members of the Burlington Royals and an ex-Elon University standout played for the Omaha Storm Chasers, who won the International League championship. Omaha is the Triple-A affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, who had a farm team in Burlington for more than a dozen years.
Storm Chasers shortstop Cam Devanney is a former Elon captain and a member of the 2019 Colonial Athletic Association regular-season championship team. He had 19 home runs and 77 runs batted in during the regular season with Omaha and he provided a run-scoring single in Omaha’s 7-3 victory in the decisive game of the IL finals against the Columbus Clippers last week.
Former Burlington Royals John Rave, an outfielder who drove in two runs, and Noah Murdock, the winning pitcher, were contributors in that game.
Omaha fell 13-6 to the Sugar Land Space Cowboys in Saturday night’s Triple-A national championship game in Las Vegas despite Devanney’s two hits, including a solo home run.
Pitcher Austin Cox also was on the Omaha roster at season’s end, while several other former Burlington players were with the team during portions of the season.
Plus, the Kansas City Royals, who are in this week’s American League playoffs, have more than a half-dozen former Burlington players. That list includes catchers Salvador Perez, Freddy Fermin, infielders Michael Massey, Maikel Garcia and Vinnie Pasquantino, and pitchers Carlos Hernandez, Daniel Lynch and Angel Zerpa.
Another former Burlington Royal with a postseason big-league team is infielder Emmanuel Rivera (Baltimore Orioles), while American League Central champion Cleveland Guardians pitching coach Carl Willis, who grew up in Yanceyville, was pitching coach for the Burlington Indians in 1998.
