Former Florence RedWolves outfielder David Lough (photo courtesy of Chris Vleisides and the Kansas City Royals) made the most of his major league debut Saturday night for Kansas City, recording a pair of hits and scoring two runs. The Royals, however, fell to the Minnesota Twins 8-7.

Lough is now the 10th former RedWolf and 56th CPL alum to reach the majors. Further, he is the eighth major leaguer the CPL has produced in 2012 and the 16th in the last two years alone.

During the summer of 2007, Lough batted .273 with a double and two home runs through seven starts for Florence. He added nine RBIs and seven runs scored to go with two stolen bases. His tenure with the RedWolves was cut short due to the draft, where Lough was the Royals’ 11th round draft pick and signed.

He started the 2008 minor league season with Single-A Burlington, where he batted .268 with 62 RBIs. A year later, Lough split time between Advanced-A Wilmington and Double-A Northwest Arkansas. After batting .331 with the Naturals, he started the 2010 season in Triple-A Omaha and batted .280 with 58 RBIs, and then .318 with 65 RBIs and 87 runs in 2011. Lough was again with the Storm Chasers to start the 2012 season, and was batting .275 with 69 RBIs and 69 runs scored before getting the call up to join the Royals.

The Coastal Plain League is the nation’s hottest summer collegiate baseball league. Celebrating its 16th season in 2012, the CPL features 14 teams playing in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. The CPL gives college players the chance to refine their skills with the use of wooden bats. Players are housed with local host families for the summer and past experiences have been very positive for both players and hosts. Further more,the CPL has had over 1,000 alumni drafted and 56 alums – including 2011 AL MVP and Cy Young winner Justin Verlander – make their Major League debut thus far. For more information on the Coastal Plain League, please visit the league website at www.coastalplain.com, and be sure to friend us on Facebook (at www.facebook.com/coastalplainleague) and follow us via Twitter (as cpleague).

Justin Sellers

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