Surprise, Ariz. - Former San Jose State University baseball player Jack Adams made his professional debut for the AZL Royals of the Arizona Summer League on Tuesday night, June 23.

The AZL Royals are a Rookie affiliate of the Kansas City Royals, which signed Adams as an undrafted free agent. In a 10-8 home loss in 12 innings to the AZL Indians at Surprise Stadium in Surprise, Ariz., Adams was brilliant, going up against just one batter over the minimum in three scoreless innings.

Adams entered a 7-7 ballgame to open the ninth, and proceeded to strike out the first batter he faced of his pro career, and the side in the frame, all swinging. After registering two more outs to begin the 10th, he wiped out a two-out single up the middle by getting the next batter to swing at strike three. In his third and final inning, Adams got an infield popout and two groundouts.

The AZL Indians scored three times off the new pitcher in the 12th and held on. The AZL Royals started their season on Sunday, June 21, and are now 2-1. They next play at the AZL Rangers at 7:00 p.m. PT on Wednesday, June 24.

Adams is the second former Spartan from the 2009 class to make his pro debut, after Kyle Bellows with the Class A Short Season Mahoning Valley Scrappers from the Cleveland Indians organization. Bellows has settled into the starting third base spot in the No. 3 position in the batting order, as his team is off to a hot 5-0 start through Tuesday, June 23, atop the six-team Pinckney Division of the New York-Penn League. Bellows was hitting .400 over four games, all starts, with a trio of two-hit games among them. Mahoning Valley was attempting to complete a three-game home sweep of State College on Wednesday, June 24, prior to heading on the road for the first time this season, for a six-game trip to close out the month of June.

David Berner, Trevor Gibson, Max Peterson and Ryan Shopshire are all waiting for their names to be called for the first time for their respective teams. Berner’s Tri-City ValleyCats, also of the New York-Penn League, are currently 1-2.

Gibson was assigned to the Casper (Wyo.) Ghosts of the Pioneer League, a Rookie affiliate of the Colorado Rockies, on Monday, June 22. He is playing there with San Jose native and former West Valley College right-hander Chris Balcolm-Miller, and former Georgia catcher Bryce Massanari. The Ghosts lost a 10-1 decision at the Idaho Falls Chukars to open their season on Tuesday, June 23. The three-game set continues on Wednesday at 6:15 p.m. PT.

Peterson was assigned to the AZL Athletics, like Adams’ club of the Arizona Summer League, on Sunday, June 21. The AZL Athletics began their season the next night, and are 1-1 heading into a Wednesday night meeting with the AZL Giants at their own Papago Park Baseball Complex in Phoenix, Ariz., beginning at 7:00 p.m. PT. Also listed on the AZL Athletics’ roster is 17-year-old pitching phenom Michael Ynoa, though the Dominican Republic native is currently injured. Blake Crosby, like Peterson a 2009 A’s draft selection out of fellow Western Athletic Conference program Sacramento State, and the younger brother of Oakland infielder Bobby Crosby, is also on the team. The club’s pitching coach is former major leaguer Ariel Prieto.

Shopshire was assigned to the GCL Blue Jays of the Gulf Coast League in Dunedin, Fla., on Tuesday, June 23. The GCL Blue Jays opened their season that night with a 7-1 win at the GCL Phillies, and were set to host the GCL Phillies on Wednesday afternoon.

Among existing former Spartans among the professional ranks, Brad Kilby continues to close in on a potential Major League Baseball debut with the Triple-A Sacramento River Cats of the Oakland A’s organization. Kilby is 2-2 with a 2.17 ERA over 21 relief appearances for the defending Triple-A and Pacific Coast League champions. In 29.0 innings pitched, he has allowed 10 hits, seven runs, all earned, five home runs and nine walks while striking out 33. Batters are hitting just .105 off of the left-hander.

Over his last six outings, Kilby has tossed 8.1 innings of scoreless baseball, with just one hit and one walk against him, and 11 strikeouts to his credit. Against Fresno on Wednesday, June 17, Kilby threw the final three innings in perfect fashion, earning his second save of the season in a 19-3 road romp over the Grizzlies. In retiring all nine batters he faced, he set down former Spartan teammate Kevin Frandsen swinging to end the game. Kilby also struck out former Stanford two-sport star and first-round MLB draft pick Joe Borchard to end the seventh.

The San Francisco Giants sent Frandsen back down to Fresno on June 12 after having called him up to the big club for a second time this season on June 9. Frandsen went 2-for-12 at the plate over three games in this latest major-league stretch, all starts.

Anthony Contreras’ San Antonio Missions, the Double-A affiliate of the San Diego Padres, ended the first half of the season on Tuesday, June 23, as the first-half Texas League South champions. The Missions thus clinch a third consecutive playoff appearance, now at 39-31 overall and on a four-game winning streak. Contreras is hitting .236 (25-for-106) over 39 games played, with six runs, three doubles, two triples, 14 RBI, six doubles and one stolen base.

Gary Patchett is hitting .228 (28-for-123) for the Triple-A PCL’s Salt Lake Bees (Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim organization), while Travis Becktel and Matt Durkin are playing for the Orange County Flyers, the defending champions of the independent Golden Baseball League.