A year ago, Trace Lee was watching from the sidelines with an injury.
While Lee hoped to return to action before the end of the season, catcher Gevonta Webb was playing with the Columbus High School junior varsity team, honing his skills for a chance to be called up to the varsity team.
Glenn Robinson was already a member of the Falcons varsity squad, but the junior outfielder was one of its most inexperienced upperclassmen and wasn’t expected to play a major role.
A lot has changed in a year.
Fully healthy, Lee has assumed a dominant role as a member of Columbus’ 2012 pitching staff. Lee, Christian Dale, and Hunter Mullis have worked so well on the mound in part because of the development of Webb behind the plate.
And while Lee and Webb have played significant roles, the maturation of Robinson has given Columbus another piece to the puzzle that has helped it return to the postseason.
Columbus (15-8) will begin its playoff journey at 6 tonight when it takes on Warren Central in game one of its best-of-three Class 6A North State series. Game two will be at 1 p.m. Saturday in Columbus. An if-needed game will follow.
Columbus advanced to the postseason for the second consecutive season thanks to a 2-0 victory against Tupelo on Wednesday. Lee pitched a complete-game six-hitter to help the Falcons finish 5-4 and earn a share of the Class 6A, Region 2 title with Grenada, which earned the top seed and a first-round bye. It also eliminated Tupelo from postseason contention for the first time in more than 20 years.
Last season, Columbus pushed Warren Central to three games before falling in the first-round series. Cook hopes the maturation of Lee, Webb, and Robinson, as well as the rest of the team, spells the difference in an early exit and a second-round date.
“It is a bunch of young guys who play hard and work hard,” Cook said. “We had a good summer. We went to the Delta State team camp and they all jelled. We beat Gulfport at that camp, and that’s when we started thinking we could be pretty good. We’re just looking forward to the weekend.”
Cook said Kendrick Conner and Eugene Prude have played key roles as pinch runners. He said the play of Chris McCullough, Greg Sykes, and Beau Edwards in the infield and Jimmy Cockrell in the outfield also have been key ingredients in Columbus’ ability to compete in one of the state’s toughest regions.
The efforts of Lee, who is a quarterback on the school’s football team, Dale, who plays on the school’s boys soccer team, and Mullis give Columbus a three-pronged attack few in the state have. Lee, a right-hander, credits Webb, Cook, and assistant coach Greg Dees for helping make the pitcher-catcher battery work so well.
“He is a lot smarter than he was last year,” Lee said of Webb. “You can know you can throw a ball in the dirt on 0-2 and he is not going to miss it. He has matured a lot since last season and is the captain on the field and the presence that we need.”
Webb didn’t join the varsity team until late in the regular season, just in time for the Warren Central series. He said he worked hard in the offseason and has listened to the advice of Dees, a volunteer assistant coach who played baseball at Mississippi Valley State, for his development.
“I have improved a lot,” Webb said. “Coach Dees has been working with me every day, putting me through hard work and putting me through a lot and working hard to get my arm right.”
Robinson, who hits behind Webb in the No. 9 spot, has worked at the plate to improve his hitting. He has improved so much that Cook was confident enough in him to call for a drag squeeze bunt with two outs and a runner at third with Robinson at the plate. Robinson delivered and used his speed to beat throw and to give Columbus the only run it needed against Tupelo.
“I have been working at it a lot,” Robinson said. “It really came from the fall and all of the workouts we did and all of the help coach Cook and coach Dees gave me.
“We have been working on (the bunt) all year, and I have been pretty good at the bunts. I was thinking, ‘I got to get him in, I got to get him in because coach might give me the bunt sign,’ so I was prepared for it.”
The investment all three players have made has put Columbus in position to take a step forward and re-build its tradition.
“We knew Trace had the potential. We saw it early before his injury last year,” Cook said. “The emergence of Gevonta behind the plate has just been tremendous. … Glenn had a huge bunt the other night. He has improved and has a lot of speed.”
Adam Minichino is the former Sports Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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