Stevenson wraps up big AFL season as Glendale seeks title match

By Byron Kerr

Nationals

November 17, 2016, 3:07am

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Glendale center fielder Andrew Stevenson is surging to finish off his Arizona Fall League campaign. In the last 10 games, Stevenson is hitting .400 (16-for-40) with with a double, triple, homer, five stolen bases, 12 runs and two RBIs.

His overall average is .354 with four doubles, two triples, two homers and 12 RBIs.

This season with high Single-A Potomac and Double-A Harrisburg, the lefty-hitting Stevenson raked to a .276 average with 146 hits, 75 runs and 39 stolen bases.

On Nov. 7, he went 5-for-6, and on Nov. 14, he went 3-for-4 as Glendale fought to get back in the division race.

Glendale needs to win today and have Surprise lose to advance to Saturday's championship game.

Early in the fall campaign, pitching coach Sam Narron talked about what he had seen from Stevenson, 22, and his potential for next season.

"Last year, I got to see him briefly, he was drafted and he came to us there about the last three weeks to a month of the season," Narron said. "He had the unique ability to just put the bat on the ball. It wasn't necessarily that he was going to run balls out of the ballpark at that point, but he hit the baseball and he hit it hard.

"I don't get into all the swing mechanics. I know he's gone deep here and he's hit several balls hard. Limited playing time (early), but when he's gotten in there, he's made a difference. When he gets the opportunity to drive guys in, he's done it. Pretty fun to watch out here."