SPRINGFIELD — Missouri State shortstop Jeremy Eierman has earned an invitation to compete for a roster spot on the nation’s premier summer collegiate team, as the sophomore has been tabbed to take part in the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team’s training camp in Cary, N.C., this week.
Eierman becomes the eighth Bear to be selected to compete with Team USA during head coach Keith Guttin’s tenure and the third MSU position player to garner an invitation in the last four seasons after both Tate Matheny (2014) and Jake Burger (2016) earned Collegiate National Team roster spots.
Eierman was a first-team All-America choice of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association, D1Baseball.com and Perfect Game USA after logging a breakthrough spring for the Bears, both at the plate and in the middle of the MSU infield as one of the Missouri Valley Conference’s top defenders. He became the third Bear in the last six seasons to be named the NCBWA’s District VI most outstanding player and was a finalist for the Brooks Wallace Award honoring the nation’s top shortstop, as well as a semifinalist for the NCBWA’s Dick Howser Trophy.
The Warsaw, Mo., product shares the No. 5 spot nationally with 23 home runs after turning in an NCAA postseason to remember, helping the Bears to their third Division I Regional crown by hitting a pair of home runs in Missouri State’s opening-round victory over Oklahoma State, as well as a tie-breaking two-run shot in the deciding game against Arkansas. Eierman homered for a fourth time in NCAA play in the Bears’ opening game against TCU at the Fort Worth Super Regional as well and hit .333 in MSU’s six postseason games.
Eierman is one of 20 USA Baseball training camp players joining 14 previously identified athletes in a five-game series with teams in the Coastal Plain League and the Carolina-Virginia Collegiate League this week before the 24-man roster is announced on Monday (June 26).
The Collegiate National Team is made up of non-draft eligible athletes currently playing baseball at the collegiate level. USA Baseball will also name a 28-man roster to compete in a series against Chinese Taipei before its final 24-man roster will compete in international friendship series against Cuba and Japan.
