By RYAN WALKER
Norwell’s Cade Shelton officially inked with Huntington University to play baseball Wednesday morning at the high school.
The senior outfielder helped lead the Knights to a 23-8 record along with the sectional and regional championships. He hit .296 in his junior season, tallying 12 RBIs and 19 runs in 76 plate appearances.
Shelton liked many things about the Foresters’ campus and baseball program, who finished second in the Crossroads League conference last year with a 27-9 record.
“The family culture that they have in the locker room, the faith-based program that they have there, and Coach Frame, his coaching style and how he has his players compete,” Shelton said.
Shelton shared that while on his visit, he felt comfortable with the agriculture professors and will be studying that in his time at Huntington. The school recently acquired two new fields of study, crop science and agronomy and animal science, to its programs in 2020.
To expand on its investment to the agriculture program, Huntington built a 10,000-square-foot building for learning purposes.
And of course, Shelton is eager to play on the baseball team. The Foresters have been in the top three in the conference every year since 2017, and were runners-up in the end-of-the-year tournament in two straight years, falling to Taylor and Indiana Wesleyan.
The Foresters have also renovated their state-of-the-art baseball field at Forest Glen Park, adding artificial turf in the infield. The improvement helped Huntington host its first-ever Crossroads League tournament and is aiming to host a national Opening Round host site in the near future.
“I’m really excited to get on the field and start competing and playing games there,” Shelton said.
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