Rustburg’s Walker named 2009 Baseball Player of the Year

RUSTBURG — Chris Walker thought he deserved better. He thought his team deserved better.

But with postseason voting being an inexact process, the Rustburg baseball team — the same Rustburg baseball team that made it all the way to the Group AA championship game — had only one first-team all-district player and absolutely none on the first or second teams in Region III voting.

How could that be? Well, one could argue that the Red Devils epitomized the team concept. You know, the whole being greater than any one individual. But that would discredit the merits of so many outstanding players who came so close to winning the ultimate prize in 2009.

Maybe nobody really noticed Rustburg until it started knocking off powerful opponents in the region and state playoffs. Better late than never.

Had all-area voting gone the way of the district and region polls, somebody else likely would have been crowned the News & Advance baseball player of the year. But that’s not the way we do it here. We take the entire season into account, and no player was more valuable to his team from start to finish than Walker.

The 6-foot-2, 175-pound junior put up strong numbers in the regular season (5-3 record, 76 strikeouts, 1.38 ERA in 55 2/3 innings), but he was often overshadowed by both of Jefferson Forest’s sensational southpaws — Trevor Johnston and Eric Heiligenstadt, both of whom received more votes in all-district polling at the end of the regular season.

But Walker, who pitches and bats right-handed, shined brightest in the region and state playoffs, during which he went 3-1 with 19 strikeouts while yielding only two earned runs in 27 1/3 innings.

He pitched a complete-game shutout in the Region III semifinals against William Byrd to help the Red Devils earn a spot in the Group AA playoffs. He helped put out the fire in the state quarterfinals against the Tunstall Trojans — who led 4-0 after the first inning — by pitching six scoreless innings of relief in Rustburg’s eventual 6-4 victory.

Need more convincing? He saved Brandon West’s state semifinal masterpiece against Alleghany and pitched masterfully in the losing effort against Poquoson in the state championship game.

Poquoson plated the winning run in the seventh on a dribbling ground ball that rolled past the mound and just out of Walker’s reach.

Walker was a first-team All-Seminole District selection. He was honorable mention All-Region III and was subsequently left off the All-Group AA team. He admitted earlier this week that those slights stung a little bit, but winning all-area player of the year made up for the previous lack of recognition.

“It’s nice. I like it. I like it a lot,” said Walker, who showed up to his all-area photo shoot Wednesday with an excited entourage that included his parents, younger brother and girlfriend. “To get player of the year all-area is a great honor.”

Walker proved to be one of the most versatile players in the area. He dominated on the mound and was no easy out for opposing pitchers.

One rival coach said in previous years the simplest way to get Walker out was with breaking pitches. He’d lunge at the offerings and send them harmlessly rolling into the infield.

That changed this season.

“I learned how to sit back on the ball and drive it the other way waiting on the curve ball and change ups and stuff like that,” he said.

Walker batted .299 with three home runs, 21 runs and 18 RBIs this season and says he expects to have an even bigger impact at the plate next season for the Red Devils. He is currently batting over .500 for his American Legion team, which sees many of the same hurlers Walker faced during the high school season.

Walker’s hitting breakthrough was nice, but on the mound was where he was most valuable in 2009, and that’s not likely to change next season.

He thrived when the stakes were the highest. He pitched all 10 innings in a regular-season win against Heritage and was on the mound, as a starter or in relief, in all of the Red Devils’ big playoff victories.

Offseason weight training gave his fastball more velocity, which in turn made his off-speed pitches more effective. Walker also developed a slider that became his out pitch for much of the 2009 season.

“(My slider) was very successful,” Walker said. “Most of the hits that I gave up were either on my curveball or fastball. I rarely ever gave up a hit with the slider. It was my strikeout pitch. Whenever I had an 0-2 count, I would throw it off the plate and they would end up swinging.”

Walker is far from a finished product. By his estimation, his fastball consistently hits the mid-80s on the radar gun, and he is spending time in the weight room this offseason in an attempt to gain even more power.

He wants to improve his strength and mechanics to position himself for a college career.

He still has one more high school season, however, to achieve the goal that he and his Rustburg teammates came so close to accomplishing this year. The Red Devils lost their entire starting outfield and half of their infield to graduation, but they have Walker and West back.

With starting pitching like that, another playoff run could be in the cards.

The returning players have 2009 as a template of how to get it done.

“I would say I became more of a leader, and I worked my butt off this year, and it paid off,” Walker said. “As a team, I would say we grew together as a team. … It was just everybody for everybody, and it showed.”