Johnstown's Grinstead never fails with baseball game on line
JOHNSTOWN — Opposing baseball teams kept pitching to Garrett Grinstead, and the end result often was the same.
Johnstown’s junior first baseman made pitchers pay time and again. Grinstead delivered in the clutch throughout the Johnnies’ resurgent season.
Grinstead hit .494 with three home runs and 33 RBI, leading the Johnnies to a Division II district runner-up finish and a 11-win improvement. They jumped to 19-8-1 from 8-18.
"The personal stat that I'm most happy about is my on-base percentage," Grinstead said. "You would like to get base hits and score a bunch of runs, but your main thing is to get on base. With the hitters behind me, I have all of the trust in them scoring me."
Grinstead is The Advocate Baseball Player of the Year. He previously was named to the All-Ohio Division II first team.
“I almost want him to be more aggressive earlier in the count because to me it seems like he is very comfortable hitting the baseball with two strikes. He is very confident in his abilities,” coach Travis Carpenter said. “He understands the situation. In the Watterson game, he was 3-0. I let him go, and he hit a home run to put us ahead.”
That home run against Bishop Watterson was the difference in a 2-1 victory in a district semifinal and part of an impressive finishing kick for the Johnnies.
"He was a great team leader and someone we could rely on to get us hits when we needed him most," junior center fielder Cole Boroff said. "He is also someone you can trust to get the job done at first base."
Grinstead opened May with two hits and three RBI in a 7-2 victory against Newark Catholic, the eventual Licking County League-Cardinal Division champion.
His fifth-inning hit drove in the only run in classmate Clay Bruning’s three-hit shutout of DeSales to open the postseason. He had three hits and an RBI in the Johnnies’ 5-4 10-inning loss to Buckeye Valley in the district final.
"I'm so successful in high-pressure situations because of practice," Grinstead said. "I have done so much batting practice and fielding work over the years I'm confident in my abilities to perform."
Also a top defensive end on the gridiron, Grinstead is not simply a slugger on the diamond. He is an athletic first baseman and was 12-for-13 stealing bases.
Grinstead’s 6-foot-4, 230-pound frame, however, is most feared at the plate. He took 16 walks and was hit by eight pitches while striking out just 10 times.
”His maturity hitting the baseball has gotten better because he is willing to hit the ball to right field, right-center field for base hits when he doesn’t get the opportunity to turn on the ball and really hit it hard,” Carpenter said. “A lot of people this year were pitching him away due to his being able to turn on a baseball pretty good. His willingness to go to back side really helped his progression as a hitter.”
Grinstead would have immediately jumped into the middle of the Johnstown lineup if not for the Covid-19 pandemic cancelling the 2020 season. He quickly has made up for lost time and has one more season to cement himself as one of the best to play for the Johnnies.
Returning an outstanding junior class led by Grinstead, Bruning and Boroff and his twin brother Chase, Johnstown will be tabbed as a contender in the ultra-competitive Division II in the Central District.
“They just didn’t realize how good they were becoming,” Carpenter said. “You don’t want them to be cocky in the situation, but you want them to play with confidence. Once they started to believe in themselves, they grew leaps and bounds.”
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This article originally appeared on Newark Advocate: Garrett Grinstead is The Advocate Baseball Player of the Year.
