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Two RHS seniors headed to Martin Methodist on baseball scholarships

RUSSELLVILLE - Russ Carpenter is the first to admit it—he does not look the part of a catcher. Never has.

When Carpenter first arrived at the high school level, tall and lean and all arms and legs in a somewhat awkward-moving frame, his Russellville coaches and teammates promptly bestowed upon him a fitting nickname—Baby Giraffe.

“He was so long and gangly,” assistant coach Jay Stanley recalled. “He definitely didn’t look like a catcher.”

Carpenter, in fact, wasn’t a catcher—not yet anyway.

“Back then, I was an outfielder,” said the 6’4 Carpenter, now a Golden Tiger senior. “They said they were looking for catchers, and somehow I ended up volunteering. It takes a special kind of player to be a catcher. I don’t mean that to sound cocky. What I mean is…you have to be kind of dumb to be a catcher.”

Carpenter isn’t talking about intelligence, of course; a catcher, perhaps more than any other player on the field, must have a high baseball IQ. But the position is so physically demanding that only a glutton for punishment would willingly put on the gear and get behind the plate. [There’s a reason that a catcher’s equipment has long been referred to as “the tools of ignorance.”]

“There are days when you really get beat up back there,” Carpenter said. “But it’s worth it. As a catcher, you’re in control of everything—maybe not in control, but involved. You’re in on every play, every pitch.”

As a sophomore in 2015, Carpenter caught for Russellville’s jayvee team and occasionally caddied for Skyler Stephens, a senior transfer from Buckhorn who helped the varsity Golden Tigers win the first state championship in program history. Since taking over for Stephens behind the plate in 2016, Carpenter has been in on virtually every play and nearly every pitch for the past two seasons, helping Russellville win 78 games (including a school-record 48 last season) and a second straight Blue Map.

“I went from being looked at as a guy who was just kind of, you know, on the team,” Carpenter said, “to being looked at as one of the main guys. That was different. All of a sudden I had kids coming up to me, asking me to sign baseballs and stuff like that. It was hard to believe.”

During the course of his journey (which continues this weekend with a best-of-three series at Arab in round two of the Class 5A playoffs), Carpenter has developed into a solid two-way catcher and earned himself an opportunity to play baseball at the next level. He and fellow senior Skylar Holland each signed scholarship offers from Martin Methodist College on Tuesday afternoon at a ceremony in the RHS field house.

Suffice it to say, the Baby Giraffe is all grown up now.

“Coach Stanley does a great job with our catchers,” head coach Chris Heaps said on Tuesday. “From where Russ was when Jay started working with him to where he is now, it’s a one-eighty.”

Stanley, who was named the state’s top assistant coach for 2016 by the AlaBCA, said Carpenter deserves the credit for his development behind the plate.

“He did a great job of working in the weight room and adding muscle and getting stronger,” Stanley said. “He grew into his body a little bit and got more coordinated. That was the biggest thing.”

Considering his build and the fact that he bats left-handed, Carpenter has first baseman written all over him. But he throws righty, which left open the possibility of him playing anywhere on the field—even in foul territory.

Carpenter had enough arm strength to make the transition from outfielder to catcher, but his work this past offseason turned his arm into a legitimate weapon—one that serves as an effective deterrent to opposing base runners. Heaps said that Carpenter has improved his velocity on throws from behind the plate to the mound from 80 miles an hour to 86, and that he’s typically in the 80-83 range on throws to second base.

“He really dedicated himself to our long-toss program,” Heaps said. “To see a guy make the kind of jump in arm strength that he made in such a short amount of time is pretty unusual.”

Arm strength aside, Stanley lauds the leadership Carpenter has shown while working with a Golden Tiger pitching staff that has posted a collective 2.03 ERA this season with 285 strikeouts and only 95 walks in 258 innings.

“His arm strength has improved, but he’s always been good at blocking pitches and throwing,” Stanley said. “The biggest strides he’s made defensively have been with the way he handles the pitching staff. Coach [Eli] Fuller calls the pitches, but Russ does a great job of motivating guys on the mound. He knows when to pick ‘em up and when to get on ‘em a little.”

As a hitter, Carpenter performed well last year in limited at bats, most of which came in the season’s first half. By the end of the year, the Golden Tigers—who had an abundance of talented hitters and not enough positions to go around—were using the designated hitter (typically Holland) to bat in Carpenter’s spot. It was a luxury that Stanley knew Russellville wouldn’t have in 2017.

“Last year we DH’d for Russ a lot, because we had so many hitters to choose from,” Stanley said. “His catching was one of the key things that got us to Montgomery, but we had enough hitters that we could get by without his bat. This year, we knew it was gonna be a different story. We knew we were gonna need his bat somewhere in the middle of the lineup, driving in runs.

“For us to be successful, he was gonna have to do both.”

And so he has. Heading into this weekend’s series at Arab, Carpenter ranks top-five on the team in hits (28), doubles (eight), extra-base hits (10), RBIs (15), walks (15), multi-hit games (seven) and on-base percentage (.391). He’s batting .277 and has delivered clutch game-winning or game-tying hits in the seventh inning against both Hueytown and Brooks.

Heaps teaches a hitting philosophy that breaks down the zone into a three-by-three rectangle, with individual “squares” or quadrants numbered one through nine—three on the bottom shelf, three on the middle shelf and three on the top. Carpenter credits his growth at the plate this season to a more patient, selective approach within that zone.

“I had some bad at bats last year, chased some breaking balls out of the zone,” Carpenter said. “The biggest difference this year has just been my approach at the plate—looking for pitches in that middle square, that five-spot, just being patient and waiting on a pitch you can hit.”

The results have been positive—provided Heaps remembers to leave Carpenter alone when he’s in the batter’s box.

“I’ve learned not to talk to Russ when he’s at the plate,” Heaps said. “For some reason, he gets really nervous when he hears me talking to him. I just tell him, ‘Hey, have fun up there,’ and then let him go.”

Carpenter was quick to credit his coaches for the role they’ve played in helping him earn a chance to play at the next level.

“Coach Heaps and the rest of our coaches, they prepare us to play college baseball,” said Carpenter, the son of Tim and Dana Carpenter. “I know there will be a lot of adjustments, like with time management and all that, but our coaches have prepared us to play college baseball.”

Carpenter was one of only two new starters for the Golden Tigers in 2016 when they repeated as state champions; the other was Holland, who transferred to Russellville from Hartselle prior to his junior season. Skylar’s aunt, Diana Fisher, opened up a State Farm branch in Russellville, and his parents (Barrett and Alisha Holland) moved to town to run the office.

“I remember when Coach [William] Booth called me and told me, ‘You’ve got a kid moving from Hartselle to Russellville,’” said Heaps, who was an assistant on Booth’s staff at Hartselle for 15 years before embarking on his own head coaching career. “He told me Skylar could really play. I told Skylar when he first got here, ‘If you’re half as good as Coach Booth says you are, we’re gonna play for state championships.’

“And we have.”

Just as Carpenter had big shoes to fill behind the plate for a team that had already won a state title, Holland had his own sort of pressure to deal with upon arriving at Russellville. He couldn’t help feeling as though he had something to prove to his new teammates and coaches.

“A lot to prove,” Holland said at Tuesday’s signing ceremony. “There was a little bit of pressure, just to try and be what everybody expected me to be.”

Holland has what baseball people call a “loud barrel,” and Heaps has often raved about the sound the ball makes when it meets Holland’s bat. Shortly after he arrived from Hartselle in the summer of 2016, the subject of Holland’s prodigious power came up in conversation, and there were more than a few skeptics among his new teammates.

“I remember telling Judd [Ward] that I had hit a 400-foot home run before,” Holland said, “and nobody believed me. I moved over here that summer so I could play Legion ball with the team, and I hit one out to dead center at Hamilton. After that, they started to believe me.”

Holland wound up leading the Golden Tigers with seven home runs as a junior, batting north of .300 and tying teammate Landon Oliver for second in the entire state with 62 RBIs. Still, he wasn’t satisfied—particularly with his strikeout rate, which increased as the season progressed. Holland refined his approach in the offseason with a focus on making more contact and hitting the ball with authority to all fields.

“Last year I struck out a lot, but this year I haven’t focused as much on hitting home runs,” he said earlier this month. “Last year I pretty much just wanted to swing as hard as I could and see how far I could hit it. This year I’ve been more focused on getting base hits and doubles and trying to hit for a good average. The power has started to come a little more lately, but I’m not up there trying to hit the ball out of the park.”

As a result, Holland has become a better all-around hitter in 2017, without sacrificing any of his natural power. Heading into this weekend’s trip to Arab, he leads the Golden Tigers in doubles (17), extra-base hits (24) and multi-hit games (11) while ranking second on the team in hits (42), batting average (.341), RBIs (40) and home runs (six).

Two of those homers came last week in Russellville’s first-round playoff series against Mortimer Jordan, a series they might not have won without key contributions from Holland both at the plate and on the mound. The 6’1, 192-pound right-hander threw a four-hit shutout in the decisive game three, striking out five and walking none to punch the Golden Tigers’ ticket to the second round.

Martin Methodist head coach Kelly Bratton’s willingness to give Holland a chance to make an impact both at the plate and on the mound was one of the main reasons Holland chose the Redhawks over schools like Southwest Community College in Memphis and Chattanooga State.

“They told me I’d have an opportunity to play right away,” Holland said, “and they told me I could be a dual guy and do both [pitch and hit]. That was huge for me, because I love doing both.”

Holland, who pairs a fastball in the low to mid-80s with a plus curve, has made more appearances (18) on the mound than any other Golden Tiger pitcher this season, compiling a 5-2 record and five saves with a 2.09 ERA. He has struck out 53 batters and walked only 15 while allowing 44 hits in 47 innings pitched.

Holland said he’d have a hard time choosing which facet of the game he enjoys more, hitting or pitching.

“If I had to pick one, I’d say hitting,” he said. “When you get a big hit or drive in the tying run or something like that, it’s just such a rush. There’s really no other feeling like it. But as a pitcher, you’re in control of the game. Everything is right there in your hand. So it’s hard for me to choose.”

Deciding where to continue his baseball career after high school wasn’t quite so difficult for Holland, who traveled to Pulaski, TN to try out for Martin last fall and then committed to the Redhawks in March.

“Glen Jackson [of Southeastern Athletics Recruiting in Russellville] called me and told me he had gotten me a tryout with Martin, so I went up there,” Holland said. “I threw some off the mound, did some infield drills and hit some in the cage. I really didn’t think I hit all that great in the cage.”

Bratton was impressed nonetheless and offered Holland a scholarship. Martin Methodist will soon welcome two Golden Tigers into the fold—right after Holland and Carpenter are finished helping Russellville chase a third consecutive state championship.

“Going to college, you don’t really know what to expect,” Holland said. “Getting to go with guys you know and have played with before, it just makes you feel more comfortable. It makes it a little easier to adjust.”

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