BIG RAPIDS – Keaton Ballard has already thrown one no-hitter this season for Big Rapids’ baseball team and hopes to continue to have a strong senior campaign.
Ballard, who has committed to Davenport University, pitched as a sophomore in 2019 and was set go at it as a junior before COVID canceled everything.
Coming into this spring, Ballard was obviously excited over the opportunity to be on the hill.
“It feels good,” he said of having a 2021 spring season. “It can be taken away at any time. We want to go ahead and give it our best.”
The 2019 season was Ballard’s first on the varsity.
“It was a roller-coaster,” he said. “We had a bunch of highs and a bunch of lows and we plateaued out. I feel like this year, we’ll see steady improvement.”
The strength of his pitching, Ballard said, “is I throw harder for this area up here and I have a power slider. I’m trying to work on my changeup and I’m also working on developing a cutter.”
As a hitter, Ballard figured on being in the middle of the lineup.
“I feel I should be .350 and above,” Ballard said. “You need to have confidence to think you can do what you can.”
The Cardinal right-hander is getting excited with his college career.
Ballard "was our top pitcher as a sophomore and threw a 3-hit complete game against Cedar Springs in our district
game," Big Rapids coach Sam Daugherty said.
Big Rapids started out 5-0 and lost four straight over the weekend. They are home with Newaygo in a CSAA twinbill today.
“First, is the conference, most definitely then we’re going for a district and we’ll shoot for a regional,” Ballard said. “Every day, we want to get better for the tournament.”
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Big Rapids right-hander off to impressive start - The Pioneer
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