Carson Invited to USA Baseball Tryouts

Matt Carson, a BYU freshman outfielder, is one of 33 players invited to try out next month for the USA National Team at its headquarters in Tucson, Ariz.

The June 15-21 tryouts will be held to trim the roster from 33 to 22 players for a team that will visit 17 American cities including Honolulu. The team will end its season facing Olympic Teams in The Netherlands.

Salt Lake City's Mike Gosling, a left-handed pitching sophomore from Stanford, has also been invited to the tryouts.

Carson was selected as Freshman of the Year in the Mountain West Conference, was named to the MWC all-tournament team, was second-team All-MWC, and was named MWC Player of the Week against UNLV. The freshman from Yucaipa, Calif., led BYU with a .395 batting average, 77 hits and 18 doubles.

Carson's throwing arm draws rave reviews, starting with BYU Coach Vance Law who calls it the best arm he has seen since teammate Andre Dawson. He broke the school record for being hit by pitches with 14.

"Matt has played beyond my expectations," said Coach Law. "I knew he was good, but I didn't know he would be playing to this level." When Carson began his 19-game hitting streak in early March he was batting .245 and when the streak ended in early April he was batting .393. He takes a 10-game hitting streak into next season.

The U.S. West-sponsored Red, White and Blue Summer Tour plays teams from Mexico, Japan, Korea, and Taiwan on its schedule. The team will be playing Korea on July 8 at Ogden, Utah.

The team is led by Head Coach Mike Gillespie of the University of Southern California, this summer on its 30-game schedule. Competition begins June 18 at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, home of USA Baseball.