Prep Ballplayer of the Week: Spalding’s Vermillion wins close, near-record vote

Our first “Prep Ballplayer of the Week” voting has been completed.

And it was one heck of a race – with a tremendous, almost record-setting, response.

First, our high school writer Sean Naylor picked three exceptionally worthy candidates: Arundel High’s junior pitcher Steve Sturlaugson, who dominated in his start last week; Archbishop Spalding senior infielder/pitcher Nick Vermillion, who hit two homers in two games and threw a complete-game shutout; and Centennial junior outfielder Jake Watson, who had a two-homer game.

Any one of the three could have taken home this week’s honors.

Ultimately, it was Vermillion, who was in a knockdown, drag-out battle with Watson all week.

The Spalding faithful eventually pushed Vermillion to “Prep Ballplayer” winning status with more than 22,000 votes – giving him 52.2 percent of our poll.

Watson, who was leading for a chunk of the week, picked up nearly 19,000 votes or 43 percent. And Sturlaugson received five percent overall and more than 2,000 votes – which is still an impressive tally for just three days of voting.

Overall, this was the second highest number of votes we’ve had for the “Prep Ballplayer” feature – a total of 43,548 votes tallied in a short week. That’s incredible. Keep at it each week.

Next week, we get back to our regular schedule – the Orioles’ Opening Day pushed us back a day – so we’ll announce our three “Prep Ballplayer” finalists on Monday and you can vote through Thursday night, with the winner announced Friday.

If you’d like to nominate a high school baseball player in the Baltimore area (and surrounding counties), please send his info, stats for the past week and a contact name to Sean Naylor at sean@baltimorebaseball.com.

Congratulations to Vermillion (pictured above) for his excellence at the plate and on the mound, and to Sturlaugson and Watson for exceptional performances, also.