Brad Driggers on the mound for Hamilton County. 

JASPER — Hamilton County baseball player Brad Driggers is having a senior season to remember. He’s added four miles per hour on his fastball and now throws in the mid-80’s. He’s putting up the best numbers of his high school career as both a pitcher and hitter.     

That season got even better on Friday as Driggers put pen to paper to sign with Piedmont International University. 

“I got stronger during the fall and the winter,” Driggers said. “The weight room, long-tossing helped. 

“I’m having fun playing this year. The team is doing good. It might be a special year for us.” 

As for PIU — where Driggers says he will concentrate on pitching — a visit in November to the university in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, helped seal the deal. 

“It felt like home,” Driggers said. “A smaller school. I took the visit with my family. We had meetings with the coaches. It felt really good.”

Driggers, who starts at catcher when he’s not on the mound, is hitting .417 with four doubles, one triple, one home run and 11 RBIs. He is sporting a 1.99 ERA in 24 2-3 innings pitched for the Trojans, who have won four straight games and are 6-3 on the year. 

His most impressive stat has been strikeouts. Driggers has already notched 38 strikeouts —  an average of more than 1.5 k’s per inning. 

“This is a big day for Hamilton County baseball,” Trojans coach Chris Howard said at the signing. “Guys like Brad make my job a lot easier.”