PHILADELPHIA – USC Aiken's Bill Rice signed a professional contract with the Philadelphia Phillies organization on Monday, July 19, 2010.

Rice has been assigned to Clearwater of the Rookie Gulf Coast League. He had been playing this summer with the New Jersey Pilots of the Atlantic Collegiate Baseball League before receiving the offer from the Phillies.

The Phillies become the 20th organization to draft or sign a former Pacer. Rice is the sixth former Pacer currently playing professional baseball.

A junior this past season, Rice finished his lone season in a Pacer uniform with a team-high 15 home runs. He concluded his season in the top 11 in the Peach Belt Conference in 11 different categories.

Rice ended the regular season hitting a team second-best .374 (77-for-206). He was tops among all Pacers during the year with 68 RBIs and 58 runs scored. He was also the team leader in total bases with 145. 

The junior transfer out of Gloucester County College ended his year with a team-best .704 slugging percentage and a team second-best .444 on-base percentage. He stole 13 bases and finished the 2010 Pacer season with 123 putouts.

Rice was best among all Pacers in multiple RBI games with 18. He was second on the squad in multi-hit games with 25. 

Rice led all Pacers in 2010 with 33 extra base hits on the 15 home runs, 13 doubles and five triples. He was the team leader or tied for the overall team lead in all three categories.

The Sewell, N.J. native, who was named the Peach Belt Conference Player of the Week on Feb. 22, 2010, broke the school record for most home runs in a single game with three in a win over Georgia Southwestern. He was 5-for-5 with seven RBIs and four runs scored overall in the game.

For his efforts during his junior campaign, Rice was chosen to the NCBWA NCAA Division II All-Southeast Region Baseball Second Team and the Rawlings/ABCA All-Southeast Region Second Team.