MOC catcher with Mariners

By Steve Roush
Published in Sports on December 14, 2006 1:47 PM

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MOC Sports Information

Former Mount Olive College catcher Craig Hurba is now with the Seattle Mariners organization after the Mariners purchased his contract from the Kansas City T-Bones of the independent Northern League. Hurba has spent the past three years playing baseball at the professional level, including two summers with the Texas Rangers organization.

Hurba was selected by the Texas Rangers in the 38th round of the 2004 Major League Baseball Draft. He played in the Arizona Rookie League in 2004, then played for the Rangers' Single-A affiliates at Bakersfield (Calif.) and Clinton (Iowa) in 2005. He spent this past summer with the T-Bones, where he hit .269 and tied for second in the league with 18 home runs. He also hit 20 doubles.

Earlier this fall, Baseball America magazine ranked Hurba among its top eight independent league prospects.

During his senior year at Mount Olive, Hurba ranked among the nation's leaders in all three triple crown categories, hitting .408 with 16 home runs and 75 runs batted in. He hit .476 at the 2004 Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference Tournament and helped lead the Trojans to a CVAC championship.

Coffield named

Player of Week

Mount Olive College guard Elton Coffield has been named Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference Men's Basketball Player of the Week. Coffield's three-point shooting helped lead the Trojans to their third win in a row last week.

Coffield, a 6-4 senior from Williamston, hit 6-of-7 three-pointers (85.7 percent) and scored a game-high 23 points in Mount Olive's 89-74 win at Francis Marion on Dec. 5. He went 5-for-6 from three-point range in the first half and had 17 points by halftime. For the game, he shot 87.5 percent (7-for-8) from the field and went 3-for-4 from the free throw line.

Coffield is averaging 20.3 points per game in his last three games since returning to his role as the Trojans' "sixth man." Mount Olive is 3-0 with Coffield coming off the bench and the Trojans won each of the three games by at least 15 points. A two-time All-CVAC first team selection, Coffield has been the Trojans' leading scorer in each of the last two years despite starting only two games prior to this season. Coffield started the Trojans' first four games this year.

Mount Olive (5-2 overall, 2-2 CVAC) is off for Christmas Break and returns to action Dec. 29-30 at the UNC Pembroke Classic. The Trojans open against Chowan, then take on Lincoln Memorial.

Two make

All-State team

Mount Olive midfielder April Jacobs and defender Kirsten White were named to the 2006 NCCSIA All-State College Division Women's Soccer Team, as selected by members of the North Carolina Collegiate Sports Information Association. Jacobs becomes the Trojans' first-ever three-time All-State selection, while White becomes the eighth Trojan women's soccer player in the last three years to earn All-State honors.

Jacobs, a junior from Fayetteville, was named to the 2006 Daktronics NCAA Division II Women's Soccer All-America First Team, becoming the first-ever All-American in the 12-year history of the Trojan women's soccer program. She led the nation in assists per game this season and tied for the 17th-highest single-season assists total in NCAA II women's soccer history. She earned All-Southeast Region honors and All-Carolinas-Virginia Athletics Conference honors for the third year in a row. She was also named to the All-Time CVAC Women's Soccer Team.

White, a freshman from Woodstock, Ontario, was named 2006 CVAC Freshman of the Year. She was named to the Daktronics All-Southeast Region Second Team and the NSCAA All-Southeast Region Second Team. White tied for the team lead in goals scored with 13 and was named to the 2006 All-CVAC First Team. She also earned CVAC Player of the Week honors during the season.

Mount Olive posted an overall record of 15-7-0 and tied for third in the CVAC standings with a 9-2-0 mark. The Trojans were ranked No. 10 in the final NSCAA Southeast Region Poll.