ESPN RISE

In its third decade of honoring the nation's best high school athletes, Gatorade joined with RISE Magazine to name senior pitcher and infielder TIM MELVILLE of HOLT HIGH in Wentzville as its 2007-08 Missouri Baseball Player of the Year.

The 6-foot-5, 205-pound senior right-handed pitcher started 8-1 with a 2.56 ERA, recording 89 strikeouts in 57.1 innings this season and leading the Indians to 21-7 record entering the Class 3 quarterfinals. The Jackie Robinson Award winner as the National Player of the Year at the 2007 Aflac All-American High School Baseball Classic, Melville, also an infielder, had produced a .405 batting average, 32 runs scored, 27 RBI and eight home runs at the time of his selection. Also the returning Player of the Year as named by the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch, he concluded his junior season with a 10-1 record, 0.89 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 63 innings.

Melville has maintained a 3.37 GPA in the classroom. An avid, self-taught guitarist, he also serves as a member of Holt High's Marketing Club in addition to participating in DECA, an international association of high school and college students studying management and entrepreneurship.

"Tim's work ethic on and off the field is really what makes him stand out," said Holt head coach Joel Adam. "I don't know anyone who puts in as much hard work to make himself better as he does."

Melville has signed a National Letter of Intent to play baseball at the University of North Carolina this fall, but is projected as a first-round selection in next month's Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.