Staff report

Matt Mauldin batted .522  and drove in 41 runs for North Rowan as as senior in 2011 and batted a team-leading .356 for the  Rowan County American Legion team that summer.

Mauldin was at Catawba briefly, but then he dropped off the baseball radar for a while. Now he’s making a comeback.

Mauldin played for the Rowan Patriots of the All American Collegiate Baseball League last summer, and he’s now playing well for Wake Tech, a community college in Raleigh.

Wake Tech (27-6)  is ranked 13th nationally among D-II junior colleges, and Mauldin has been a big part of their success as the leadoff man and right fielder.

Mauldin is batting .330 and is second on the team in runs (27) and hits (36). He leads the team with 11 steals.

Mauldin is a freshman at Wake Tech, so he can return for a second season.

“Baseball and schoolwork have fit hand-in-hand here and things are going  very well,” Mauldin said.

After his sophomore year at Wake Tech, Mauldin hopes to continue playing baseball at a four-year school.

He’s on the Dean’s List at Wake Tech, but the challenge will be finding a place where he can play baseball and also pursue a mechanical engineering degree.

Not every schools offers mechanical engineering.

“The plan is to keep playing baseball at the next level, and to get that mechanical enginering degree,” Mauldin said. “I hope it all works out to do both, but the degree will be the priority.”

Mauldin may have a future in the motorsports industry, a business where his father, Mark, has been visible over the years.  Among other things, Mark has served as Hendrick Motorsports race day operations and pit crew coordinator.

Mauldin will play baseball this summer for Ramseur’s Deep River Muddogs in the Carolina-Virginia Collegiate League.