Laurel's Lanier Kept Classy Company in Baseball

David Lanier, a resident of North Laurel, has been baseball teammates with future pro players at the high school and college level.

A graduate of Atholton High, Lanier is now ready to begin his own career. But he will not have to worry about the long bus rides or second-rate hotels that plague most minor league baseball players.

On Monday he is expected to begin a job with Target as an executive team leader. That will come with its own challenges, but Lanier is ready to get to work after spending a few days of relaxation at the beach this week in North Carolina.

This comes after he recently graduated with a degree in business management from Frostburg State University, where he was a four-year member of the Division III baseball program with the Bobcats.

"I seriously considered a graduate assistant spot as a coach at a Division III school while doing my masters," Lanier told Patch this week. "But when I got an internship at Target I fell in love with the company."

Lanier played on the baseball team at Atholton and one of his teammates was Steve Lombardozzi, now a promising infielder in the Washington Nationals' farm system with the Harrisburg Senators.

Lombardozzi began this season as the no. 13 prospect in the Washington system, according to industry leader Baseball America.

"He deserves everything that he gets. He is one of the hardest workers I have ever seen," said Lanier, a product of Laurel Little League and the Laurel Boys & Girls Club baseball programs.

At Frostburg, where Lanier was a senior pitcher this past season, he was part of a staff that included Greg Ross and Josh Davis. Freshman catcher for the team was Will Warrick, a Laurel resident and Reservoir High grad.

Ross was drafted in the 18th round last week by the Atlanta Braves - just the third player in school history to be drafted by a major league team and the first since 1978. Ross was slated to play in the Gulf Coast League with a Braves' farm team near Orlando but has been shifted to the Danville (VA) Braves of the Appalachian League.

"There were a lot of colleges that were looking at me," said Ross, who played two years at Frostburg. "Everything fell into place. Growing up I always watched [the Braves] and the Orioles."

The first draft pick out of the school, in the 1970s, was Washington Nationals' manager Jim Riggleman, from Rockville.

Davis, from Hereford High, was also a pitcher this season for Frostburg State and he signed a pro contract to play for the Gateway Grizzlies of the independent Frontier League.

"They definitely worked hard. They both have good arms," Lanier said. "In Ross' case, everybody knew he had a pro arm. He is a great pitcher."

Lanier also played a key role this season for Frostburg, which was 28-15 overall and lost in post-season play to eventual national champ Marietta of Ohio.

Lanier was 2-0 with an impressive ERA of 1.36 this past season for the Bobcats. He pitched in 12 games, with four starts and allowed 26 hits and nine walks in 33 innings with 16 strikeouts.

That was a far cry from 2010, when he was 1-0 with an ERA of 8.47 in nine games out of the bullpen.

"I think my work ethic was up in the off-season," said Lanier, who added that new NCAA rules regarding aluminum bats also decreased offensive production around the country in 2011. "That was the case for all of us. It was our last hurrah. We understood it was now or never. We graduated 17 seniors. Our defense was solid all year."

Lanier also dealt with a labrum injury as a junior pitcher. "I am not a guy that will overpower you," he said.

He was 2-0 with an ERA of 3.86 in 12 games in 2009 with two starts. Lanier was 0-0 with an ERA of 7.20 in four games as a freshman in 2008 and he hit .207 in 29 at bats for the Bobcats.

While his college career is over, 6-foot-4 right-handed Lanier is playing in the Baltimore Baseball League. He said it is an adjustment to go from the intensity of a college team to a more relaxed feel of a summer league.

But he will get a good look at the professional world when he begins his job with Target on Monday in the central Maryland region.