Tonight was to be a second homecoming of Caldwell County golden boy Madison Bumgarner. Madison was drafted by the San Francisco Giants (first round - 10th overall) in the 2007 draft at the age of 18 years old. In reality, Madison was only 17 when drafted. He didn’t turn 18 until last August.

Madison started his professional baseball career with the Augusta GreenJackets, the low-A affiliate of the Giants in the South Atlantic League. After getting off to a rocky start with the GreenJackets, Madison made his first homecoming appearance at L.P. Frans Stadium in Hickory against the Hickory Crawdads. This game was to be a turning point in Bumgarner’s performance. After only two or three appearances on the mound prior to this game, Madison had a 7+ ERA. When he took the mound in Hickory, he pitched 6 innings of baseball without giving up an earned run, and striking out eight batters. Currently, Bumgarner has a 1.77 ERA, which puts him near the top of the South Atlantic League pitching performances this season. Madison has currently pitched in 13 games and holds a 7-2 win/loss record. During 71.1 innings of play, he has allowed only 14 earned runs, 2 homers, issued 11 walks, and struck out 84 batters. Any way you look at this, it’s been one helluva performance.

Anyway… The heavens opened up tonight and dumped a ton of rain at Hickory’s L.P. Frans Stadium and no baseball was played. Madison was scheduled to pitch for the GreenJackets tonight. We’ll have a double-header tomorrow, and hopefully Madison will start the first game. If not, we should still get to see him pitch since this is a 5-game series in Hickory…

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