Southern Alamance alum Evan Sykes earns All-American baseball honors

Southern Alamance graduate Evan Sykes turned a Graham-to-Greensboro path into national recognition, earning ABCA/Rawlings NCAA Division III First Team All-American honors at shortstop after a senior season that rewrote Greensboro College’s record book. The award, announced May 28 in Eastlake, Ohio, underscored how far a player recruited out of Southern Alamance High School has carried the Pride program.

Sykes finished his senior year hitting .412 with 12 home runs, 64 runs scored and 23 doubles, tying Greensboro’s single-season record. He also became the school’s career leader in home runs with 33, RBI with 159, runs scored with 191, hits with 208, doubles with 61 and games played with 161. Greensboro said Sykes was named All-USA South first team as the Pride closed the season 26-17 and fell 5-3 to William Peace in the opening weekend of the USA South Conference Tournament in Greensboro on May 3.

The All-American recognition also marked a milestone for the program. USA South officials said Sykes became Greensboro’s first baseball All-American since Jess Maloney in 2006, and this latest honor, along with Trevor Testerman, gave the Pride its first two first-team All-Americans in program history. That rarity gives Sykes’ rise more weight than a single hot season; it places his name among the few Greensboro players to earn national postseason distinction.

For Alamance County, the route matters as much as the result. Sykes, listed by Greensboro as a Graham native and Southern Alamance High School graduate, broke the school’s career hits record with his 192nd hit on April 12 against Mary Baldwin in Grottoes, Virginia, passing Hunter Curtis, another Southern Alamance alumnus. In a March and April profile, coach Chris Fenisey called Sykes “the best baseball player the college has ever had,” a judgment backed by the numbers and by a season in which Sykes twice earned USA South Player of the Week honors, on Feb. 23 and April 27.

The arc from local standout to national All-American gives Southern Alamance athletes a clear benchmark: recruiting can open the door, but sustained production, durability and record-setting performance are what turn a college career into history. For Greensboro College, Sykes leaves as the standard-bearer for a program that found one of its most decorated players in Alamance County.