Commitment Profile: Jeff May

The final addition to North Carolina’s 2008 baseball recruiting class is Jeff May from Creedmoor (N.C.) South Granville High School. The right handed catcher earned first team all-state honors last season and is the top rated catching prospect in North Carolina according to Impact Baseball.

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The Tar Heel baseball program originally caught May’s eye while visiting Chapel Hill for middle school baseball camps. "I was first interested in UNC when I headed to camps when I guess I was 13 or 14,” May said. “Back then was when I was first getting interested in playing there."

After a sophomore season in which he hit .525 and posted 10 home runs and 38 RBI, the interest with UNC became mutual. May followed that up with a junior campaign that included a .409 average with 11 home runs and 38 RBI.

He received scholarship offers from ACC and SEC schools, ultimately opting for North Carolina over Clemson, NC State and Duke.

"Jeff had a lot of offers from several schools and Carolina had not [yet] made an offer,” recalled his father, Kenny, who coaches at South Granville and with the prestigious Dirtbags summer team, while also serving as an associate scout with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. “They had not made an offer and said they liked him and wanted to wait and so Jeff waited. He turned down several schools and waited on Carolina.

“They finally offered ... and Jeff committed. I tried to get him to look at other schools, but at the time there was only one place he wanted to be."

May stands 6-2 and powerfully built, featuring a strong throwing arm and smooth catching mechanics. He has been calling the pitches for his high school team for the past three seasons and is noted for his ability to handle the talented pitching staff at South Granville High (as the team has a 10-0 conference mark thus far and a 20-5 overall record). He is a power hitter with a high ceiling for power development as he matures. And he clearly has a deep-rooted passion for the sport.

"Being a high school coach [when] he was really little, he always wanted to come up to the field, help to work on the field, cutting the grass and working the dirt,” Coach May said of his son. “He practiced with our varsity team a lot when he was in seventh and eighth grade. He was always around the game, around the field. He is kind of a baseball gym rat."

A member of Impact Baseball’s North Carolina Dream Team, May has two years of experience with the Dirtbags' powerhouse squad. He’s competed alongside fellow future Tar Heels Garrison Lassiter, L.J. Hoes, Seth Baldwin, Chris Munnelly, Bryan Mitchell, Levi Michael and Chaz Frank.

UNC will be in need of a starting catcher in the near future to replace draft eligible junior Tim Federowicz, and May figures to be among those replacement candidates. Carolina has sophomore Mark Fleury on the roster as well as junior Mike McKee. Jacob Stallings will also join May as a freshman catcher next season.

The Tar Heels signed 10 prospects during the Early Signing Period late last year and May will be the 11th member of the incoming freshman class when he signs this spring. However, he will need to wait another month before officially becoming a Tar Heel because there isn’t yet scholarship room on the roster. That is expected to change in early June following the MLB Draft and May is more than willing to wait – as his father noted, he doesn’t want to play anywhere else.

“Jeff was going to wait one way or the other until Carolina said ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to him [during his recruitment],” Kenny May said. “He would walk on at Carolina before accepting a scholarship to another school if he had the opportunity to be on the baseball team for North Carolina."

TAR HEEL BASEBALL RECRUITING BOARD
2008 Signees
Seth Baldwin	OF	Forest City (N.C.) East Rutherford
Derrik Gibson	SS/OF	Seaford (Del.) High
Matt Harrison	SS	Henderson (Nev.) Green Valley
L.J. Hoes	OF	Washington (D.C.) St. John
Jason Knapp	RHP	Annandale (N.J.) North Hunterdon
Garrison Lassiter	SS	Clemmons (N.C.) West Forsyth
Tim Melville	RHP/3B	Wentzville (Mo.) Holt
Jimmy Messer	RHP	Hudson (N.C.) South Caldwell
Quinton Miller	RHP	Medford (N.J.) Shawnee
Jacob Stallings	C	Nashville (Tenn.) Brentwood
2008 Commitments
Jeff May	C	Creedmoor (N.C.) South Granville
2009 Commitments
Tommy Coyle	SS	Chalfont (Pa.) Germantown
Chaz Frank	OF	Lexington (N.C.) Central Davidson
Brian Goodwin	OF	Rocky Mount (N.C.) High
Levi Michael	MIF	Lexington (N.C.) North Davidson
Bryan Mitchell	RHP	Reidsville (N.C.) Rockingham County
Chris Munnelly	RHP	Lewisville (N.C.) Forsyth Country Day