WCU, Pennridge HS Product Dylan Tice A Versatile Talent

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Dylan Tice was a baseball star at Pennridge High School in Bucks County. He played much of his college career at IUP before spending his final year at West Chester University where he hit .450.

The St. Louis Cardinals liked what they saw and they selected Tice in the 36th round of the 2015 draft.

These days Tice is out in State College, Pennsylvania, playing for the Single-A Spikes in the New York-Penn League.

"This is incredible being able to play right close to home," Tice tells KYW Newsradio. "There's so much talent on this roster it makes it fun to show up at the field every day. Obviously playing baseball as a job, I can't complain about that. But especially when you have a situation like this, it's pretty amazing."

Listen to the entire interview with Dylan Tice:

Spikes is hitting .282 in 19 games this season for the Spikes. He has a couple of home runs and ten runs batted in. He's also played a handful of games this season for the High-A Palm Beach Cardinals.

He talks about one focus for him right now.

"Earlier this year I really struggled with pitch selection," Tice says. "So I kind of want to be more selective with the pitches I swing at. When I do swing, I've had good success, but I've chased out of the zone quite a bit and over the past week or two I've kind of honed in and I've been a little hot. And I've not been chasing out of the zone, so I kind of want to keep that going and hopefully that leads to more success."

Tice has played second base, third base and shortstop as a pro. This year he's added left field to his resume and says he may soon be taking ground balls at first base.

"I get to learn a lot down here," Tice says. "We have great coaches down here where I can go from position to position and there's somebody to teach me that position specifically. The other thing I learn is not only those positions, specifically, but how to move from position to position day-to-day. There's some times where I'll play four days in a row and play four different positions. So to be able to lock yourself in mentally as a second baseman, then a shortstop, then a third baseman, then a left fielder, then maybe you're DH'ing the next day, it's one of those things where it's kind of all different thought processes at each position. That's kind of the hardest part of moving. I mean a ground ball is a ground ball wherever you are, but the mental grind of switching positions is kind of what I'm learning now."

Tice and the Spikes will host Mahoning Valley on Friday night.