Cory Vance

Cory Wade Vance ... was named the Ohio State Player of the Year out of Vandalia-Butler High School after going 11-1 with a 1.19 ERA and 144 strikeouts and also hitting .479 with 9 homers and 38 RBI as a senior ... drafted by the Dodgers in the 11th round of the 1997 June draft but chose not to sign and enrolled at Georgia Tech that fall ... also earned letters in baseball and basketball while in high school ... pitched for the USA Junior National Team during the summer of 1997 ... signed by Ed Santa.

2003

Opened at Triple A for the first time in his career and spent most of the season at Colorado Springs before joining the Rockies on Aug. 19...made nine appearances for the Rox, including three starts, compiling a 1-3 record with a 5.60 ERA, 10 walks and 12 strikeouts (27.1 ip, 17 er)...the southpaw was very effective against lefties, holding them to a .161 average (5-for-31) with only 2 extra-base hits, both doubles...righthanders on the flip side batted .338 off Vance (26-for-77) with 15 extra-base hits, including 6 home runs...lost all three of his starts, 0-3 with a 6.19 ERA (16.0 ip, 11 er)...was 1-0 with a 4.76 ERA in relief (11.1 ip, 6 er)...retired 4-of-6 first batters faced as a reliever, stranded 2 of his 4 inherited runners, had one hold and one blown save...went 2-for-7 at the plate (.286) with 2 runs, a double and 2 sac hits...tied for the Colorado Springs staff lead with 24 starts, going 9-11 with a 4.63 ERA and 3 complete games, including 2 shutouts (157.1 ip, 81 er)...the 2 shutouts tied for the Pacific Coast League lead and matched Visalia's Jeff Francis for most among Rockies minor leaguers...Cory's 3 complete games led the farm system, as did his 11 losses...in his Class AAA debut on April 7, Vance pitched a 1-hit, 1-0 complete game shutout against New Orleans in a game shortened to 5 1/2 innings due to rain...allowed 2 walks and 4 strikeouts over 5.0 innings to earn the win...the first half turned out to be very successful for the southpaw, as he went 8-4 with a 3.93 ERA in his first 13 starts en route to earning a spot in the Triple A All-Star Game...but then hit a wall in mid-June, losing seven consecutive decisions over 11 starts from June 19-Aug. 10...snapped that skid with a 5-hit shutout vs. Memphis in his last start before joining the Rockies on Aug. 15...walked 2 while striking out 7 in going the full nine innings...joined the big league club four days later and notched his first major league victory Aug. 20 vs. Florida in what was his 2003 debut...relieved Darren Oliver in the first inning after Oliver was hit with a line drive, and held Florida to just 1 run over 5.1 innings...the 5.1 IP were the most relief innings by a Rockie since Brian Bohanon worked 6.0 IP on May 12, 2000...after one more relief appearance, Cory was named as the starter in place of an injured Chin-hui Tsao on Aug. 29 at Los Angeles...lost a 6-4 decision to Kevin Brown, allowing 5 runs on 7 hits with a walk and 3 K's...5 of those 7 hits went for extra bases, including a pair of solo home runs by Ron Coomer and Adrian Beltre...moved back into the bullpen where he made four consecutive relief appearances Sept. 5-13 (4.0 ip, 2 er)...blown save Sept. 5 vs. LA, as he retired his first three hitters before a Beltre solo homer tied the game in the seventh...named as the emergency starter on Sept. 20 vs. San Diego after Jason Jennings was hospitalized the night before due to a flu-like virus...lost that second start 10-3 to Brian Lawrence as he gave up 4 runs on 6 hits over 5.0 IP with 2 BB and 2 K's...was kept in the rotation for his final start on Sept. 26 at Qualcomm, his third defeat in as many tries...worked 6.0 innings, yielding 6 hits and 3 runs (2 earned) but had no help from the offense in a 5-0 loss to Adam Eaton.

2002

Spent the entire season with AA-Carolina and was actually getting ready to head to Arizona Fall League when he received his first major league call-up on Sept.17 ... appeared in two games during the final two weeks of the season, including his first major league start on Sept. 28 at Arizona ... the left-hander was 0-0 with a 6.75 ERA (4.0 ip, 3 er), allowing 4 hits, 2 home runs, with 4 walks and 1 strikeout ... made his major league debut in relief on Sept. 21 vs. Arizona at Coors Field ... after retiring his first batter, Steve Finley, Cory yielded back-to-back solo homers to Mark Grace (2-0 count) and Damian Miller (2-1 count) ... got Jay Bell to pop out but then walked Womack and gave up a single to McCracken before getting Spivey on a flyout to end the inning ... went almost a week without any action until Clint Hurdle named Vance as the starter in place of Victor Santos on Sept. 28 at Arizona ... in his first career start, Cory worked 3.0 innings, giving up 1 run on 1 hit with 3 walks and a strikeout ... a hit batsman and two walks led to a run in the first but then the southpaw settled down to retire six of his last seven D'Backs before exiting after 56 pitches ... the former Georgia Tech star finished his third season in the Rockies system ... earned a spot in Carolina's rotation this spring and went on to be a key member of the Mudcats rotation that helped the team into the Southern League Playoffs ... led Carolina in wins (10), innings (150.1) and tied for the team lead in starts (25) ... was 10-8, 3.77 ERA (150.1 ip, 63 er) with 76 walks and 114 strikeouts ... Cory's Double A debut got off to a slow start as he lost his first two decisions and was just 1-5 after his first nine starts with a 3.91 ERA (53.0 ip, 23 er) ... broke the slump with a win on May 24 at Chattanooga and from that point on the lefthander went 9-3 with a 3.70 ERA (97.1 ip, 40 er) over his final 16 starts ... earned a decision in seven straight outings from June 9-July 21 (5-2) ... from July 16-Aug. 16, he went 4-0 in seven starts with a 2.20 ERA (45.0 ip, 11 er) ... threw his lone complete game to finish off the stretch on Aug. 16 vs. Jacksonville ... his final regular season outing was a loss on Aug. 25 at Huntsville, snapping the winning streak ... the lefty started Game One of Carolina's Southern League Playoff series vs. Jacksonville ... worked 7.0 innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits with 4 walks and 3 strikeouts but did not factor into the decision ... the game was tied 3-3 at the time of Cory's departure but Carolina scored four runs in the bottom half of the eighth to take Game One by a 7-3 final ... Jacksonville went on to win the series.

2001

Spent all of 2001 at High A Salem where he was 10-8 with a 3.10 ERA ... led the Avalanche with 142 strikeouts and his 10 wins and 154.0 innings were second on the team to only Aaron Cook ... was named a mid-season All-Star in the Carolina League ... did not allow an earned run in three consecutive starts, July 20 vs. Myrtle Beach (8.0 ip, 1 r), July 25 at Myrtle Beach (7.1 ip, 0 r) and July 30 at Winston Salem (7.0 ip, 0 r).

2001

Vance made just three starts and four relief appearances for Portland (A) in his first professional season ... was 0-2 despite allowing just 3 earned runs in 24.1 innings (1.11 ERA).