Present, Past Mauldin Baseball Players Snag Postseason Honors

A number of Mauldin baseball players have snagged postseason honors.

Mauldin High pitching ace Cory Thompson recently was named to the state's Class 4A All-State Team by the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association.

Even more exciting for Thompson, a USC Gamecocks signee, is his Major League prospects. is the state's second-ranked Major League Baseball draft prospect. 

Thompson ranked 121st in Baseball America's newly released top 500 draft preview.



Joining Thompson with postseason honors are former Mauldin High player Joe Jackson and former J.L. Mann player Bo Thompson from Mauldin, both with The Citadel, who snagged All-Southern Conference honors.

Jackson, a catcher with the Bulldogs, was a first-team selection.

Jackson was having a solid season through the end of March, batting .309 with four home runs and 29 RBI before turning into a candidate for conference player of the year honors over his final 28 games. Over that stretch the junior catcher went 44-for-105 (.419) with 11 doubles, eight homers and 33 RBI and hit safely in all but four games.

At the end of the regular season, Jackson was batting .363, the sixth-best mark in the SoCon, and also ranks second in RBI (62) and on-base percentage (.468), tied for second in runs scored (58), fourth in total bases (132), fifth in slugging percentage (.614) and walks (37), tied for sixth in doubles (16) and tied for seventh in hits (78).

In conference games only, Jackson is first in slugging percentage (.805), on-base percentage (.521), RBI (42), runs scored (41) and home runs (11), second in total bases (91), third in batting average (.407), doubles (12) and walks (24) and tied for sixth in hits (46).

Jackson entered the 2013 campaign with only one home run to his credit before reaching double figures this season. He left the yard in eight of 10 SoCon series and had a two-homer game against Davidson on May 4. He also had three games with a career-best five RBI.

Thompson, The Citadel's designated hitter and a second-team selection, has been a powerful force in the clean-up spot in the Bulldog's lineup, slamming a team-leading 14 home runs and driving in 50 runs despite drawing a conference-high 52 walks. He was batting .296 at season's end with 10 doubles and 42 runs scored and leads the SoCon with a .472 on-base percentage as well as ranking second in homers.

The sophomore suffered an ankle injury against VCU on March 2 before coming back six days later to hit three home runs and drive in five runs in the SoCon opener against Samford. He added another two-homer game among his career-high five hits and matched his career best with five RBI against Furman on April 27.