Adenhart - Early Years

Early Years

Nicholas James Adenhart was born in Silver Spring, Maryland, the only son of Janet and Jim Adenhart, a former United States Secret Service officer. His parents divorced and Janet later remarried Duane Gigeous, with whom she had a son named Henry, who is a pitcher at the University of Oregon. Adenhart played Halfway Little League Baseball for Gehr Construction and attended Springfield Middle School in Williamsport, Maryland. He pitched for the Hagerstown PONY League for six years, and was a member of the 1999 team that won the Maryland District 1 title.

After graduating from middle school, Adenhart attended Saint Maria Goretti High School in Hagerstown, Maryland. He played shortstop and outfield, in addition to pitching. While attending Saint Maria Goretti, Adenhart was a guard on the basketball team that won the Baltimore Catholic League championship. At the age of 14, Adenhart joined the Oriolelanders, a showcase team composed of Maryland amateur players and sponsored by the Baltimore Orioles, where he would stay for four years. In 2003, at the age of 16, Adenhart pitched for the Youse's Maryland Orioles, who went on to win the All American Amateur Baseball Association Tournament for that year.

Adenhart transferred to Williamsport High School after his sophomore year, where he gave up basketball to focus solely on baseball, as a pitcher. Scouts began closely following him when he was named the top junior prospect by Baseball America. Adenhart had a 6–0 record with a 1.04 earned run average during the regular season in his junior year, and as a result was named the Gatorade Player of the Year in Maryland. In a 1–0 loss during the playoff quarterfinal matchup, he threw a no-hitter and had 14 strikeouts. Entering his final high school season, Baseball America dubbed Adenhart the top high school prospect in the country. In his senior year, Adenhart threw a perfect game in his very first outing, striking out 15 of the 21 batters faced. Entering the final regular season game of his high school career, he had a 5–1 record, a 0.73 ERA and an average of 2.2 strikeouts per inning. During November of his senior year, Adenhart signed a letter of intent to play with the North Carolina Tar Heels baseball team at the University of North Carolina, although his chances of being drafted high continued to climb and the North Carolina coaching staff saw their chances of acquiring Adenhart to be slim.