College Baseball Countdown: 14 Days to Go - Heath Quinn

We’ve clearly established at this point that Mercer’s Kyle Lewis is currently the best MLB prospect in the Southern Conference.

The second-best prospect in the league, though, is likely Heath Quinn of Samford, and he’s really not too far behind the Mercer star.

Last season, as a member of what was a great Bulldogs offense, Quinn hit .340 with 11 doubles, 14 home runs, and 56 RBI. He also stole eight bases for good measure. Over the summer, just as Lewis did, Quinn earned All-Cape Team honors. With Falmouth, he hit .317 with eight doubles, two triples, four home runs, and 16 RBI. That performance went a long way toward proving that Quinn could hold his own against elite competition and had perhaps even more to do with his move up prospect lists. D1Baseball.com has him 52nd on their top 300, and Baseball America has him at number 48.

For the 2016 season, he will be a big part of a Samford team that is expected to battle right alongside Mercer for the top of the SoCon.

Quinn will be just one piece in a potential juggernaut offense that will also include Austin Edens (.357, 17 doubles, 16 HR, 54 RBI), Alex Lee (.343, 16 doubles, 10 HR, 49 RBI), Hunter Swilling (.324, 15 doubles, 4 triples, 16 HR, 56 RBI), and Richard Greene (.322, 11 HR, 50 RBI), along with stolen base artist T.J. Dixon (.286, 4 triples, 22 SB).

Quinn is very much already on the radar of talent evaluators, fans of Samford and other Southern Conference teams, and hardcore college baseball followers, but with a huge season and a run into regionals for the Bulldogs, he could be much more of a household name among casual observers, much the same as Lewis was after Mercer made a run into the Tallahassee Regional in 2015. Clearly, all of that is well within the realm of possibility from both a personal and team standpoint for Quinn and the Samford Bulldogs.