By Gary Fauber
Register-Herald Assistant Sports Editor
BECKLEY —
Kendrick Epling carries with him a pair of newspaper articles that are just about a year old.
The clippings don’t tell the story of Epling being named an all-stater or marvel at his ridiculous earned run average that easily led the state in 2009. Rather, they proclaim Epling and, more importantly, his teammates at Independence losers.
They appeared after the Patriots lost 6-5 to eventual champion Lincoln in the state semifinals last June.
“I’ve got two articles about Lincoln winning it and us losing,” Epling said. “I laminated them and take them in the dugout.”
Now a senior, Epling talks a lot about motivation. He’s been to the state tournament twice, with two losses to show for it. There is nothing he wants more than to pick up two wins in Charleston this June to even that record and be part of a group to forever leave its mark at the Coal City school.
The Patriots’ only state championship in baseball came in 1994. Epling wants desperately to be part of the second.
“Just try to get to the state tournament and win it,” he said. “That’s been my No. 1 goal.”
It would be easy for Epling to get caught up in individual statistics. He certainly had some impressive numbers last year.
Even after falling to Lincoln ace Josh Harlow on a wet, unseasonably cool June day, Epling still finished his junior year with a 6-2 record and 0.28 ERA. He fanned 97 batters in 50 innings, nearly two per inning.
“I was just trying to get to the state tournament,” he said. “But after I saw my ERA was, like, 0.45 (after a shutout win in his team’s annual wooden bat tournament), that’s when I started figuring I was having a pretty good year.
“I worked my butt off the whole offseason. My sophomore year, I didn’t work my butt off at all. Then I worked my tail end off, from season’s end to season’s start. I think that’s what helped me.”
The time between last summer and this winter for Epling was spent working perhaps harder than he ever has. He went, as he does every summer, to Ron Wolforth’s Texas Baseball Ranch in Houston. There, he worked with some of the top prospects in the country, including San Francisco Giants draftee Matt Graham and UCLA star Trevor Bauer.
Bauer was a freshman All-American last year and is currently 4-0 for the No. 3 Bruins.
“That’s really what motivated me,” Epling said, “because when you see players like Trevor, you want to work to get better like them.”
Epling also has been working with Jeff Wallace, a former Pittsburgh Pirate hurler who now is the pitching coach for the West Virginia Miners wooden bat collegiate summer team.
“He’s helped a lot, just motivating me and stuff,” Epling said.
Wallace has worked with Epling in adding a cutter to his repertoire that includes his trademark curveball, a fastball and occasional changeup.
“My changeup has really developed,” Epling said. “You don’t really need to use it in high school ball that much. But when you go against Post 94 (American Legion) and all those teams, you need three, four different pitches. Then I’ve worked on a cutter. Jeff’s taught me how to throw a cutter. That’s just a practice thing.”
The Patriots’ start to the 2010 season was cut drastically short Monday by the weather. They were hosting Oak Hill in the first official game at Linda K. Epling Stadium — named, ironically, after Epling’s grandmother — but it was rained out in the bottom of the first after Epling had drawn a one-out walk.
It was the first time the teams had met since Indy’s 8-3, 10-inning win in the Region 3 title game last May.
After a brief hiccup — Oak Hill’s Dustin Nuckels walked to lead off the game — Epling struck out the next three batters for stats that ultimately will not count.
“I was a little nervous, but I was pumped up even more,” Epling said. “I started off a little rusty, but I struck out those last three guys. I felt pretty good after that. I was just trying to get my rhythm and timing.”
The Patriots will try again today, at Van. They return a strong nucleus of players, including infielders Shawn McKinney and Trevor Gray and outfielders Colton Garris and Jeff Cook, but will have to find replacements for hitting stars Jeremy Buchanan and Jake Justice.
Epling, for one, believes the Patriots can reach their goal. For motivation, they need look no further than their own school.
“First-team all-state, try to be captain, that’s individual, but no one’s going to remember you two years from now,” Epling said. “You win a state championship — we’ve only won one in the history of our school, and we’ve got a picture of it on our (gym) wall. I always look at it.
“There’s not going to be a picture of a first-team all-stater. That’s what really pushes me.”
— E-mail: gfauber@
register-herald.com
