Kyle Bloom of Bettendorf, Iowa, has signed a national letter of intent to continue his education and baseball career at Illinois State University.
A three-time letterwinner in baseball at Pleasant Valley High School, Bloom earned second team all-Mississippi Athletic Conference recognition as a pitcher in his sophomore campaign and first team honors as an outfielder in his junior campaign. In both his sophomore and junior prep campaigns Bloom earned second team all district and honorable mention all-state honors as a pitcher.
Kyle is a talented left-handed pitcher with a tall and projectable frame, ISU head coach Jeff Stewart said. Hes someone we think has a lot of great baseball ahead of him. We feel that with the way he throws the ball hes really going to develop into a great pitcher for our program.
Stewart believes Bloom has the potential to follow in the footsteps of ISUs recent left-handed success stories.
Hes another talented lefty to follow in the paths blazed by recent stars, Eric Eckenstahler, Brian Forystek and Neal Cotts, Stewart said. We feel that he has the ability to come in and contribute right away as a freshman.
A left-handed power pitcher as demonstrated by his 114 strikeouts in 93 innings of work over the last two seasons, Bloom has developed control to go along with a blazing fastball.
At 6-2 and 170-pounds, Bloom has experienced considerable physical development over the past year which has improved his velocity and added to a curve ball that has great depth. In addition, Bloom has a changeup that has shown good improvement and is working on a nasty but unreliable splitter.
A three-sport star, Bloom was a four-year letterman in tennis and a three-year varsity letterman in golf. This past fall he led the golf team to the state tournament while playing at the top of the lineup. This spring he has tallied a 13-0 record at the No. 2 singles position in tennis and a 10-3 doubles record while playing at the No. 1 position.
Bloom joins a recruiting class which already includes Scott Bialobreski, Howie Frank and Jeff Reyes.
