Former Major League Baseball pitcher Seth McClung is the new baseball coach at Ashbrook High School in Gastonia. McClung, 44, is uncle of two-time NBA slam dunk champion Mac McClung. McClung, a two-time high school All-American at Greenbrier East (WV), was drafted in the fifth round of the 1999 MLB Draft. He played seven seasons for Tampa Bay and Milwaukee and had a total of 16 professional seasons from 1999-2014 that also included a stop in Triple A Durham.
McClung finished his MLB career with a 26-35 record, 346 strikeouts and a 5.46 earned run average.
Growing up, McClung lived in Cramerton, in Gaston County, and attended Cramerton Junior High before moving out of state. Before going to Ashbrook, McClung coached the baseball team for two seasons at Tarpon Springs (Fla.) High, taking a team that was 6-21 the season before he began to 30 wins in two years. In the previous 10 years,, Tarpon Springs was 61-159. Last spring, McClung led Tarpon Springs to a district runner-up finish.
Ashbrook will host a meet-and-greet with McClung on Thursday at 4 p.m. in the school’s conference room.