Abrams hoping to go out a champion

Bishop England shortstop Alex Abrams wants to even things out by the time he graduates in May.

He's been a starter for the Bishops for four years and played on state championship teams in 2007 and '09. The trend at the Daniel Island school is to win state titles in odd calendar years. The Bishops also won state titles in '03 and '05. Abrams, a member of the class of 2010, wants to break that trend and go out a winner.

"It's my one final goal in high school," said Abrams, who leads the team with a .450 batting average. "I want to go out with one more state title. Everything is in place. We just have to be hitting on all cylinders."

Abrams, a two-time All-Lowcountry selection, has been hitting on all cylinders for pretty much his entire life. His father, Andy, is the dean of the Charleston School of Law and is an avid baseball fan. The elder Abrams started pitching batting practice and hitting grounders and fly balls to his son at the tender age of 3.

Abrams was the athletic director at the College of Charleston and would take his son to Remley's Point to watch the Cougars. Alex would take batting practice on the soccer field so his dad could pitch and watch Cougars baseball at the same time.

Vacations also included batting practice. The Abramses would pack the suitcases, batting tees and a bucket of balls. Abrams has pitched batting practice to his son in the Poconos, the Berkshires, San Francisco, Vancouver and New York's Central Park.

"He must have pitched batting practice more than a 1,000 times," Alex Abrams said. "And sometimes, it would last a good three hours. You have to understand that he has a rubber arm."

And Alex also has an understanding mother.

"She puts up with it," Alex said of his mother, Karen Abrams. "She doesn't mind if we're coming in at 9 o'clock and hasn't seen us all day. She doesn't mind the practice or when we argue about who we think the best baseball player is."

The hard work as a youth helped him when he joined the Bishop England baseball team as a freshman.

"Baseball has taught me time management," Alex said. "We practice from 3 to 7 o'clock, and Bishop England is a great school. I always have homework, so I know how to get the work done in the proper time frame. I started under coach (Mike) Darnell and now play for coach (Bill) Collier, and they taught me there's a right way to do things and there's no other way."

The Bishops don't have a captain, but Abrams is the leader of a team that includes only five healthy seniors on the roster. He's started all 96 games the Bishops have played in the last four years and has helped the Bishops to a 78-18 record and two state titles during that span.

"He's really reliable," Collier said. "He's got good hands, is smooth in the field and swings a good bat. He's really valuable to us."

Abrams committed to play for the Furman Paladins in January of his junior year. His father also attended the Greenville school.

"Baseball is not going to last forever," Abrams said. "That's why I chose Furman. It offers a great education. There is life after baseball, and Furman will help me reach my goals."

"When he was growing up, I didn't know where he would go to high school," Collier said. "But I knew he was going to be special. Now, he's getting a chance to play college ball at a great school. He deserves everything he's gotten."