Texas Tech-bound Fleming earns first-team All-State honors

By Bart Isley

Published: June 29, 2008

Kenny Fleming didn’t begin his baseball career like a seasoned veteran. He started off like any other rookie — nearly clueless.
“My freshman year I was just wild — I was swinging at anything, doing what any young kid would do,” Fleming said.
Fleming is no longer clueless — he’s dominant, and now he’s a first team VHSCA All-State honoree in Group AA as an outfielder. The first team All-State award joins his first team All-Region award as well as Jefferson District player of the year honors.
Baseball success is nothing new for the Fleming family. Fleming’s father, Steve, is a mid-Atlantic scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates and his older brother, Kyle, plays for Army. The youngest Fleming, Kurt, was Louisa’s leadoff hitter this season as a sophomore.
Fleming will take that pedigree and his impressive resume with him to Texas Tech this week when the Louisa product makes the 1,589-mile trip to Lubbock to enroll in summer school and play in a wood bat college league in west Texas. That’s where Fleming will get a crash course in dorm life and in collegiate pitching.
“That’s the main reason I’m going down there — to get used to college play and see how it all goes down,” Fleming said.
If how he handled high school is any indication, Fleming should do quite well as a Red Raider.
Fleming led the Lions to a berth in the region playoffs with a regular season district championship. In the playoffs, Louisa beat James River in the quarterfinals before falling to a Broad Run squad that lost to eventual state champion Powhatan in the state quarterfinals.
Much like he will in college, Fleming got to rely on a number of talented teammates to get the job done, including first team All-Region selection Dylan Szalankiewicz and second team all-district honoree Reggie Shelton.
“I got my average but a lot of guys in front of me helped me do that because pitchers had to pitch to me,” Fleming said.
They’ll have to do it in college too. Fleming will see some of the best hurlers the nation has to offer when the Red Raiders’ spring slate begins.
The region has produced some of the all-time collegiate pitching greats including Roger Clemens, who played his college ball at Big 12 rival Texas.
That challenge is part of what intrigued Fleming.
“That’s probably the biggest challenge I’ll face in my whole life,” Fleming said. “Fielding-wise, I’m pretty much up-to-date on that. It’s more the hitting, taking my time and being patient at the plate. I know they’re going to work the count because these are big-time pitchers.”
He’ll also get a chance to start nearly immediately. Several Texas Tech outfielders are likely to depart school through the draft including the San Francisco Giants’ third-round selection Roger Kieschnick. That leaves the door open for Fleming, who is excited about the opportunity.
“It’s going to be a young outfielder this year and I’m the only pure center fielder so it looks pretty good for me,” Fleming said. “The only way I can lose it is if it’s my fault.”
Fleming will get the added bonus of playing for a new era in Texas Tech baseball after Dan Spencer, Oregon State’s former pitching coach, was elevated from associate head coach to head coach. Spencer was named the successor to Larry Hays this June when Hays resigned after 22 years at the helm for the Red Raiders.
That’ll give Fleming the added bonus of playing for a coach that has produced multiple top-10 draft picks while also playing for a program that has a long history of putting players in the pros.
“I didn’t want to go somewhere where you don’t ever hear about people getting drafted because the coach doesn’t coach them right or something goes wrong,” Fleming said. “They’ve put people in the pros year in and year out so that gave me another reason to jump into it.”
He’ll jump right into it this week.