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His dad hasn't forgotten that moment.

"When we moved to Forest Park in Cincinnati, my dad got me involved with a tee-ball team," Jeremy Hamilton said. "But the first time I ever hit the ball, I ran straight to third base instead of first.

"I had no clue what was going on and my dad told me he was so embarrassed 'cause all the other kids knew what to do. To be truthful, he never thought I'd stick with baseball."

He figured his son would follow them to bowling. Jeffrey Hamilton and his wife Carol were good league bowlers. He'd had a perfect game, an 849 series. She carried a 192 average.

"People tell me how they remember rocking me as a baby at the bowling alley," Hamilton said. "I had my first bowling pins set when I was 3."

During his senior season at Princeton High School, Hamilton had a string of 22 consecutive 200-plus games and finished 17th in the 2005 state bowling tournament.

But having not only learned which way to run when he hit the ball, but how to get those hits in the most opportune moments, he was good in baseball, too.

That was evident before his senior season when he was invited to a fall showcase in Blue Ash.

"I walk in and Jeremy immediately hits a single," said Wright State baseball coach Rob Cooper. "I remember thinking how smooth his swing was."

Later, Hamilton — who was not being recruited by anyone — hit a home run to dead center. "It cleared the 25-foot wall and dropped into the parking lot," Hamilton grinned. "They tell me Coach Cooper ran straight over to the dugout and said, 'I gotta have that kid.' "

There may be a little poetic license there, but not much. Cooper — new to the Raiders' program — invited the Hamiltons to visit Wright State the next day:

"When you like a kid, you like a kid, but I won't lie, I kept thinking 'Why isn't anybody else recruiting him? What am I not seeing that everyone else is?' "

It turns out nothing.

He made first baseman Hamilton and Fort Wayne shortstop Justin Parker his first two recruits. Today that hot-hitting junior duo — both first-team All Horizon League selections — are known as The Bash Brothers at WSU.

Last summer, Team USA — choosing the best 22 college freshmen and sophomores — added Hamilton to its team that won a silver medal at the Pan Am Games in Brazil and then toured the Netherlands.

On Monday, May 19, Hamilton — among the Horizon League leaders in 11 offensive categories — was named the conference's Player of the Year. He'll be honored before the Raiders open Horizon League tournament play Thursday in Youngstown.

Next month, he and Parker almost certainly will be chosen in the Major League draft. For advice, Hamilton has been listening to New York Mets reliever Joe Smith, once Hamilton's roommate at WSU.

"I talk to him once or twice a week," Hamilton said. "The year he got drafted, I was just a freshman, just a little pup soaking up everything. I value what he says, especially now with all the excitement swirling around."

That's how it was Monday, when Hamilton got a text message during his science lab. From a Raiders' coach, it simply said "Congratulations POY."

"I had to step out of class and call my parents to tell them I was the Player of the Year," Hamilton said. " My dad was so excited, he was hollerin' into the phone."

It was another of his son's baseball moments he wouldn't forget.

Horizon League tournament

Who: No. 2 seed Wright State vs. TBA

When: 3 p.m. Thursday, May 22

Where: Eastwood Field, Niles, Ohio

Top seed: Illinois-Chicago

Tickets: Single-day $6 for adults and $4 for senior citizens and youth; all-tournament passes $20 and $14, respectively. HL students free.

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