Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2009

Belleville West senior picked for Pirates camp

Event scheduled for December

BELLEVILLE -- Aaron Muendlein dreams of one day playing collegiate baseball at the NCAA Division I level and maybe -- just maybe -- beyond.

And the Belleville West senior is doing his best to make that quest come true.

The 17-year-old Muendlein has been chosen along with 200 of the top high school players in the nation, to participate in the Pirate City Christmas Camp and Tournament, Dec. 27-30 at the Pittsburgh Pirates spring training facility in Bradenton, Fla.

The event is sponsored by Under Armour.

"I got a letter from Under Armour one day saying that they were conducting an open tryout camp for this team at GCS Ballpark in Sauget," Muendlein said. "I went down, thought I had a good workout for them and then the next day I got a call telling me that I had been chosen. I knew I had a good workout for them. I hadn't hit or thrown a baseball in like two weeks and so I came out real fresh. I was real quick and sharp."

The tryout camp was held in late October.

"To be chosen out of players from all 50 states and from Puerto Rico, I was deeply honored," Muendlein said.

The camp/tournament is conducted by college coaches, ex-professional players as well as current professional scouts and coaches.

While December is considered a "dead" period for college coaches, meaning that can not have any contact with high school players during this time, Muendlein, with the help of Under Armour, will be able to make valuable contacts in the baseball world.

"It's a quiet time in terms of college recruiting, but just the contacts I can make down there with those instructors will be invaluable," Muendlein said. "The Under Armour people have told me that they've done a player profile on me that they send to every college coach in the country.

"The contacts that I'll make down there and if I go down and have a good couple of days of workouts, would really help sell me."

A shortstop, Muendlein hit .340 for the Maroons during the 2009 season.

Muendlein will live on the Pirates Complex during the four-day event. The day will begin at 6:30 a.m. and will be strictly baseball from that point on until 10 or 11 p.m.

"We will have workouts and individual workouts with the coaches in the morning and early afternoon, then after lunch we'll play games until 8 or 9 p.m. then we'll have more instruction," Muendlein said. "It's going to be a long day.

"They told me that if I don't love the game of baseball then I don't need to come down because you're not going to love it after you leave if you don't love it already."

Contact reporter Dean Criddle at 239-2665 or dcriddle@bnd.com.