Washington Signs OF Turner Hill, 2022 Draft League's Batting Champ
WASHINGTON, Pa. (March 29) – The Washington Wild Things announced today the addition of outfielder Turner Hill to the 2023 roster. The former Marietta College standout helped the West Virginia Black Bears to an MLB Draft League Championship in 2022 after his collegiate career wrapped up and won the league’s batting title.
By hitting .391 with the Black Bears In 37 games, Hill won the league’s batting crown by a wide margin. The next closest batting average was Trent Taylor’s .349 clip for State College. His OBP of .463 also led the league while he scored 38 runs, had nine doubles, two triples and a home run. Hill also drove in 16 and walked (20) more times than he struck out (16). He was 14-for-18 in the base-stealing department.
Before joining the Black Bears, he made a stop with Licking County in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League and was 21-for-51 in 12 games with five doubles, a triple and nine RBI to go along with 14 stolen bases.
At Marietta in 2022, Hill stole 33 bags in 40 attempts, slashed .433/.514/.558 and posted 19 doubles, two triples, a home run and 51 RBI in his final collegiate season. He lived up to pre-season All-American honors from d3baseball.com by being named All-Region by both d3baseball.com and ABCA, All-OAC First Team and Player of the Year and Postseason All-American by both ABCA (Third Team) and d3baseball.com (Fourth Team).
“Turner is a young kid who is very interesting. If you look at his numbers and what he did in the MLB draft league, especially the second half of the season last summer, he was pretty dominant at the plate offensively,” said manager Tom Vaeth. “It’s important to find good young rookies like Turner Hill, with his ability to get on base and make things happen.”
In 2021, Hill’s first season at Marietta College, he received the following laurels: ABCA/Rawlings First Team All-American, d3baseball.com Second Team All-American, ABCA/Rawlings and d3baseball.com First Team All-Mideast Region, OAC Player of the Year and All-OAC First Team. That season in 44 games, Hill slashed .449/.515/.587 and posted 18 doubles, three triples, a home run and 32 RBI to go along with 30 stolen bases and 21 walks drawn to just eight strikeouts. That’s just one strikeout every 28.875 plate appearances.
Hill played three seasons at Malone University prior to his arrival at Marietta. In 2018 as a freshman, he played in 48 games and made 46 starts. He was Great Midwest Athletic Conference Freshman of the Year and Second Team All-Great Midwest Athletic Conference after posting a .340 batting average. In 2019, Hill slashed .335/.420/.415 with 29 RBI on his way to a second team All-GMAC selection. He was hitting .341 in the 11 games that were played before the 2020 season was halted.
A standout in both baseball and basketball in high school, Hill was two-time first team All-Ohio, two-time first team All-Southeast District, the 2016 East Central Ohio League Baseball Player of the Year and two-time first team All-East Central Ohio League on the diamond at Marietta High School.
The most up to date roster is available on the Wild Things’ website. The league’s transaction page is available here.
