The Citadel Athletics

SOPHOMORE (2016): Started 15 games on the bump … named SoCon Pitcher of the Week and one of Collegiate Baseball’s National Players of the Week February 22 and March 28 … Awarded College Sports Madness SoCon Baseball Player of the Week on March 29 … Struck out 12 of the 19 batters he faced in season opening win over Virginia Tech … pitched 6.2 innings en route to his second win of the season over Siena on February 26 … picked up third win of season on March 18 against Presbyterian, tossing 7.0 innings and scattering three hits … pitched a career-high 8.0 innings and fanned a career-high 19  on March 25 against VMI, the most in the NCAA by a pitcher at the time … struck out 19 of the 28 Keydets he faced and finished just one K shy of the school record … beginning in the fourth inning, the lefty retired 15 straight batters, 13 of which were strikeouts and set a new record at Gray-Minor Stadium for strikeouts … picked up right where he left off against Stetson on April 1, striking out the side in the first inning and finishing 6.0 innings of work with seven Ks … worked 5.1 innings and tallied seven strikeouts including the side in the fifth inning against UNCG on April 8 … struck out the last two outs in the fifth frame with the bases loaded to prevent UNCG from adding any runs … tossed 6.0 innings against both Wofford and Western Carolina in next two starts … struck out six against Samford on May 13 … fanned 10 in 3-2 win against VMI in the SoCon Tournament on May 24 becoming one of four pitchers in school history to throw two double-digit strikeout games against the same team in one season … had three outings with at least seven innings pitched, two of which came against VMI, had three double-digit strikeout games in 2016 and finished with 29 Ks against the Keydets … finished the season with 93 strikeouts and now has 175 in his career … led the team with 82.0 innings pitched… tallied five wins … ranked third in the SoCon with 93 Ks and second with 32 batters struck out looking …

FRESHMAN (2015): Finished the season with a 5-5 record and a 4.28 ERA in 17 appearances… named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman team ... struck out 82 batters including a season-high 10 against Mercer on May 21 ... faced 336 batters who averaged a .276 batting average against him ... threw 75.2 innings.

HIGH SCHOOL: A 2014 graduate of Wilson Hall High School ... enjoyed an outstanding season with a batting average of .418 with 11 extra base hits, 28 runs scored and 19 RBI … went 7-0 with an 0.38 ERA on the mound, striking out 96 in 55.0 innings … named to the all-conference and all-state team, selected the SCISA Player of the Year and the High School Sports Report Mr. Baseball and was on the North-South all-star squad … led team to a record of 29-1 and state championship after finishing as runners-up in 2013 … also chosen to North-South and all-conference teams his sophomore and junior years and was on the Perfect Game and Palmetto Games all-tournament squads, receiving the Golden Arm Award in the latter event … member of state titlist in football his senior year when he had 107 tackles and three interceptions.

PERSONAL: John Patrick Sears Jr. ... born Feb. 19, 1996 ... son of Pat and Suzann Sears … majoring in business administration.