GC seniors reflect on their journey

By RICHIE HALL
sports@readthereporter.com

When the Guerin Catholic senior baseball players run on to Victory Field this afternoon to play in the Class 3A state championship game, it will be the culmination of a four-year wait.

Tate Troxell, the University of Alabama-bound Golden Eagles pitcher, is one of those seniors that played varsity for Guerin Catholic as a freshman. While speaking with The Reporter on Tuesday, Troxell listed several more seniors that also played all four years.

Troxell

“Ian [Taylor] and Karson Smith were varsity full-time starters,” said Troxell. “And Nolan Ratcliff and Grant Bears got some at-bats during the year.”

In other words, the GC baseball seniors have played with each other for a while. And not just in high school. Troxell said he and his teammates have been playing together in travel ball leagues “in our youth days, so we’ve known each other for a long time,” giving them a bond and chemistry that’s lasted.

“We’re all really close teammates and brothers,” said Troxell. “We have good bonds and we trust each other. Whether I’m on the mound or Karson Smith is at bat, each of us trust each other to do our jobs in our situations.”

Taylor is one of the team’s leading hitters, batting at a .420 clip. He has scored the most runs (44) for the Golden Eagles, along with 35 RBIs and 34 hits, including a team-leading nine home runs. Smith is on top of the RBI list with 41.

Guerin Catholic’s top hitter is junior Carson Kail, with a .432 average. Junior Ben Canada has the most base hits with 37, 17 of them doubles.

“All of our guys are super motivated,” said Taylor. “Everybody here, for the most part, is going to play college baseball, and if they’re not already, they really want to. It’s big in practice. We take it very seriously, the hitting and the buying in to what the coaches are telling us situationally.”

Troxell leads a very successful pitching roster. He is 8-0 with a 1.23 earned-run average and a team-leading 88 strikeouts.

Senior Luke Gremelspacher holds a 1.13 ERA and 41 strikeouts, while senior Harrison Haq is 4-0 with 50 strikeouts. In fact, none of the GC pitchers has a loss on their record.

Troxell said that during the season, “me or Luke Gremelspacher will throw a game a week, and it’s really all hands on deck from there, whoever’s been throwing it good recently. Coltyn Price, he’s been throwing really good out of the bullpen. You could look to see him to get some innings if needed.”

The senior class played at Victory Field when they were freshman for a regular-season game with Heritage Christian, giving them a taste of what it’s like to compete on the big stage. As for the players who didn’t have that experience, Troxell is confident they’ll be able to handle things.

“I don’t think the lights will be too bright on that stage,” said Troxell. “We just played at Jasper with a huge crowd this year against Gibson Southern. Last year, we played at Jasper against Jasper and they brought 4,000 people to the game, so we’ve played in these environments and shown that we can step up in [these] situations. It really doesn’t have me nervous at all.”