By R.L. Bynum
Outfielder Sawyer Black, the top-ranked high school outfielder in North Carolina, committed to UNC on Tuesday.
The left-handed hitting Black, ranked by Perfect Game as the No. 3 player in North Carolina, the No. 23 outfielder in the country and the No. 133 player in the country, announced his decision on X (formerly Twitter).
Black committed to Liberty on Nov. 8, but longtime Flames coach Scott Jackson resigned as their coach earlier this month and is expected to join Coach Scott Forbes’ staff at UNC. Jackson previously was on Coach Mike Fox’s staff at UNC.
The 6–1, 185-pound Black, who also pitched, led Wesleyan Christian Academy in all major hitting categories as a senior last season and participated in the Perfect Game High School Showdown in Hoover, Ala., and the USA Baseball National High School Invitational in Cary.
Black, who attracted dozens of scouts to his games, participated in the MLB Draft Combine but was not selected in this week’s draft.
On a team that included five seniors who will play in college, Black led the team in hitting (.453), on-base percentage (.590), home runs (9), runs (46), hits (39), RBI (40), slugging percentage (.930) and triples (3) while stealing 10 bases in 30 games.
“He has made his weaknesses average and his strengths superpowers,” Wesleyan coach Mo Blakeney told the Greensboro News & Record. “That is the best I can say … He doesn’t try to make his weaknesses superpowers. He tries to make his weaknesses average because he knows his strengths are superpowers, so if he can sit here and hit the fastball away and hit it over [to the opposite field], ‘thank you.’ If you throw it in to him, he is going to hit it out of the ballpark.”
Wesleyan Christian, located in High Point, won the North Carolina Independent Schools Athletic Association 4A title in Black’s junior year, and the Trojans were 23–7 last season and made the state finals.
Photo via @sawyerlblack2
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