A.J. Bumpass was used to winning awards in high school. A four-year all-conference selection and one-time player of the year for Northern High School in Durham, North Carolina, Bumpass came to the Cincinnati Bearcats as an outfielder who could field and rake.
As a freshman, Bumpass got a chance to show those skills off, but didn’t really get comfortable. He slashed .172/.258/.310 with six extra-base hits and 10 runs scored across 87 at-bats and 26 games (22 starts). He had only three multi-hit games, but perhaps we should have known that when he went 2-for-5 in the final game of the season (a 7-6 extra-inning loss to UCF) that he was going to build his way to a breakout sophomore campaign.