Former East Bladen High standout Zamar Lewis set FTCC single-season school records for home runs (13) and runs batted in (51) last season. (Contributed photo)
Zamar Lewis turned a confidence-shaking freshman season into a record-setting sophomore year at Fayetteville Technical Community College.
Now, the former East Bladen High standout is getting the opportunity to play Division I college baseball.
Lewis recently signed with Alabama A&M, a Southwestern Athletic Conference school based in Huntsville that is trying to build its baseball program.
“When I visited there I wasn’t sure what I was going to think about it because it’s so far away,” Lewis said. “As soon as I stepped on the campus it felt like home. If I was going to go far away, it had to feel like that. It’s like a family there.”
Lewis is headed to a program that has struggled to find its way on the diamond. The Bulldogs were 10-40, including a 2-27 conference record, last season under interim coach Louis Whitlow. Alabama A&M is 51-147 over the past four full seasons since the COVID-19 pandemic.
That history didn’t deter Lewis, who also drew interest from other SWAC schools such as Grambling State and Arkansas Pine-Bluff along with schools closer to home in Coker and Erskine.
“I want to have an opportunity to play,” Lewis said. “I know going (to Alabama A&M) I’ll have an opportunity to grow as a person and get better as a player.”
A chance to play baseball at a four-year school seemed unlikely after his first spring season at FTCC. Lewis batted just .190 with a home run and 17 runs batted in for the Trojans in 2024.
He’s leaving the program as the school’s single-season record holder after blasting 13 home runs and driving in 51 runs. Lewis nearly doubled the FTCC record of seven homers in a season and bettered the previous RBI mark by 13.
When FTCC’s season ended, Lewis had a .318 batting average and 29 stolen bases to go along with his power numbers.
“My first year was a wake-up call,” Lewis said. “My freshman year I had a good fall, then I came into my freshman spring and just had no confidence.
“The biggest thing that changed (in my sophomore season) is learning how to grind it out. I had conversations with myself, my teammates and some of the coaches about not really caring about how others thought I was playing, to just block out the outside noise.
“Also, a lot of prayer. There’s a verse that I go to, John 13:7, ‘What I am doing you do not understand now, but afterward you will understand.’ I didn’t understand why I was playing so bad (as a freshman). Now, whenever I have pressure I keep that perspective.”
As a senior at East Bladen, he led the team with a .483 batting average and 18 RBIs.
Lewis is expected to make the 550-mile trip to the Alabama A&M campus in August. He is the son of Nicole and Albert Lewis.
Sonny Jones can be reached at [email protected].