RAY KNIGHT BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Crisp County’s Taylor Walls

CORDELE — Taylor Walls watched the first of four straight pitches sail outside and into the mitt of Carrollton High School catcher Wil Garrett.

Four straight balls put the Crisp County senior on base with an intentional walk. As Walls trotted down the first base line, his anger boiled inside.

“It made me mad,” Walls said of his intentional pass in Game 1 of the Class AAAA state championship series in late May.

“But at the same time, it was going to give my teammates a chance to show what they could do. I was hoping Chris McGinnis, hitting behind me, was going to smoke one.”

Walls was already 2-for-2 in the game with a single and a three-run homer to give his Crisp County team a commanding 6-0 lead. And if that wasn’t enough, the senior right-hander was hurling a shutout.

But Carrollton coach Ryan Zaideman didn’t want Walls to pad the Cougars’ lead any more than he already had.

Landon Whitman had singled earlier in the inning, and Zaideman was trying to put out what had already turned into a raging inferno.

“I didn’t want him to pitch to him anymore,” Zaideman said. “So we put him on.”

Walls didn’t like it, but he commanded the respect of every team he played this season. Some pitchers intentionally walked him, while other pitched around him.

He led the Cougars with his bat, defense, pitching and most of all, his leadership.

Just like last season when the Cougars relied on pitcher Robert Tyler — the 2013 Herald Player of the Year and current standout at the University of Georgia — to help them make a deep postseason run, Crisp County rallied around Walls in 2014.

Crisp County fell short in the state championship series against Carrollton, but the Cougars likely never would have even got that far without Walls, who earned The Herald’s 2014 Ray Knight Baseball Player of the Year award.

“Robert Tyler and Taylor Walls were similar in the way that they both provided leadership,” Crisp County coach Bill Pate said. “Even though they provided it in different ways, they were similar. Robert did what he had to do, stepping up in big games. Taylor did the same thing.”

The Florida State signee emerged as the leader of the Cougars and hit better than .400 in the leadoff position, often igniting the offense. Then he used his speed to create havoc on the bases.

In the state semifinals against Alexander, Walls led off Game 2 with a single, advanced to second on a groundout, stole third and scored on a sacrifice fly. His early run provided all the support the Cougars needed in a 3-0 victory to sweep the series.

Pate spoke fondly of Walls’ defense at shortstop. It was common to see the senior diving for grounders or teaming with second baseman Witt Campbell to turn a double play.

“He was so valuable at shortstop that we didn’t want to take him out of that position,” Pate said. “He always did what we needed him to do.”

However, his pitching was something the Cougars came to depend heavily upon. When the season began, left-handers Stewart Tyler and Whitman were expected to get most of the innings. But when Whitman went down during midseason with an injury to his pitching hand, Walls became an almost automatic victory when he took the hill.

It was Walls who asked the coaching staff if he could pitch more.

He finished with a 4-2 record and a 0.70 earned run average. Both of his losses came during the postseason. He was saddled with a 4-2 loss to Walnut Grove in the first game of their quarterfinal series when he had some difficulty early but adjusted and shut down the Warriors the rest of the way.

“I remember in that first inning, he had some trouble locating his pitches,” Pate said. “But he settled down and didn’t allow anything after that.”

On offense, the only game all season in which he didn’t get on base with a hit was in the Cougars’ 2-0 loss in the third and deciding game of the state championship series. Crisp County managed just six hits as Carrollton took the series.

Nearly a month has passed since the Cougars lost the championship series and while Walls, who will begin classes at Florida State on Monday, said he is still disappointed, he won’t detract from what the Cougars accomplished this season.

“We finished second place for a reason,” he said. “It’s just like I told the guys in the huddle after the state championship, there is a purpose behind it. If there wasn’t a purpose behind it, God would not have put us here. It may have been for us to build character for something better down the road. But there is a reason.”

Getting the senior to talk about his season was a challenge. The laid-back shortstop was humble and preferred to talk about Crisp County’s team accomplishments rather than his own.

“This is definitely a team honor,” he said of the Ray Knight award. “I never expected this, and it caught me by surprise.”

While his high school career ended four weeks ago, his collegiate career is just beginning. He said FSU coaches told him three infield positions — third base, shortstop and first base — are vacant. While Walls considers himself a shortstop, he is open to trying other positions.

“If shortstop doesn’t work out, I’d like to go over and pitch some,” he said. “Those two positions are where I have gotten most of my experience. But I wouldn’t mind throwing a couple of innings.”

As Pate looks forward to the 2015 season, he said it’s hard to imagine Walls not being there. As an integral part of the program, he helped lead the Cougars to the state finals and the semifinals in his last two seasons.

“He had a great year and a great career,” Pate said. “He definitely did a lot more than get hits. He was our spark plug all year. We pretty much did offensively what Taylor Walls did.”

2014 ALBANY HERALD ALL-AREA BASEBALL TEAM

Infielders

C.J. White, Sr., 3B, Crisp County

WHY HE