For former Chatham Charter baseball standout Aidan Allred, this summer has been an early introduction to what the college level looks like.
Allred, an incoming freshman at Brunswick Community College, has spent his summer playing for the Sandhills Bogeys in the Old North State League, a summer league for college baseball players with 22 teams all over North Carolina.
As of Sunday, Allred has played in 18 games primarily at the shortstop position. From the plate, he has batted an average of .222 and recorded 12 hits and seven RBIs.
“I’ll describe (this season) as an adjustment,” Allred said. “It’s a lot different than high school.”
Although the level of competition and skill wasn’t the same as it is in the ONSL, Allred’s high school stats looked much more impressive.
In his four years at Chatham Charter, Allred achieved a .504 batting average and recorded 124 hits, 111 RBIs, 16 home runs, a career fielding percentage of .957 and 101 putouts, according to MaxPreps. Allred’s senior campaign in 2024 was one of the best hitting seasons in the state as he recorded a .612 batting average (second in NCHSAA), 52 hits, 46 RBIs (fourth in NCHSAA) and seven home runs (tied fourth in NCHSAA).
However, against other college talent, those numbers don’t come nearly as easily. Allred said the biggest adjustment to the college game has been the speed.
“The pace of the game is a lot faster,” Allred said. “Everybody is stronger, bigger and faster, so you have to adjust your timing whether it’s in the box, throwing across the infield or whatever it may be.”
Fortunately for Allred, the two men who created the ONSL are in his corner as he gets accustomed to the next level.
Allred’s brother, Alec, and father, Reggie founded the ONSL in 2018. The ONSL website says Alec Allred, who played independent minor league baseball, called his father on the way home from playing independent professional ball in Michigan. With Allred inspired by the league he was returning from, the conversation to pass the time brought the idea of a new college summer baseball league, and not long after, the ideas shared between the two men were put into motion.
The ONSL played its inaugural season in 2019, starting with just four teams that all played at Craven Stadium in Ramseur. In 2023, the ONSL became the first partner league of the The Players League, a league established to “unite college baseball summer leagues around the country for the better of the player” which is also the current owner and operator of the ONSL.
“I’m definitely thankful because not many people have a brother and dad that do that,” Allred said. “It’s pretty special. My brother and dad always wanted to prepare me the best. And, with my brother playing professional baseball and college, he knows what it takes.”
Said Allred, “(Alec) sets everything up for me to succeed the best he can.”
From game one to now, Allred feels his biggest improvement is his mentality and his ability to stay mentally strong through the ups and downs of the season.
In three games from June 26 to Saturday, Allred went 0-for-7 from the plate combined, but in the two games before that stretch, he went 3-for-9 and recorded three RBIs in the two wins.
“You don’t have the success rate that you have in high school,” Allred said. “Being able to handle failure, I’d say I’ve gotten better at it.”
Said Allred, “But also, my coaches are really good at knowing that I’m young, and I’m learning. They help me go through it because they’ve all been through it.”
Allred’s best game of the season so far was in the Bogeys’ 10-2 win over the Danville Dairy Daddies on June 24. Allred recorded two season-highs in hits (two) and RBIs (two), and one of his hits was his second double of the season. Out of three chances, Allred also contributed two putouts from the infield.
“I was seeing the ball,” Allred said about the June 24 game. “That was the first game that I had switched to a 33-inch bat to just try to speed up my hands. I just put good swings on the ball.”
Regardless of the outcomes or his performances with the Bogeys, Allred’s experience with the Bogeys is doing what it’s supposed to do.
“I feel like I’m getting the jitters of college ball out of the way before I actually get there,” Allred said. “I’ve made big jumps even though (my stats) don’t add up to what I did in high school yet. I feel like I’ll definitely get back to more of that level once I get to school.”
