Coming from a small town, kids would expect to go off and enjoy a bigger city environment to continue their education and pursue their goals and dreams. That means that they would have to grow apart from friends, family and teammates. For four baseball players from the small town of Jasper, Texas, that wasn’t the case.
Kids from a small town often expect to go to a bigger city to pursue their academic and athletic dreams. They usually expect to grow apart from their friends and high school teammates. But for four TJC baseball teammates, Parker Phillips, Tyler Ernest, Jacob Soisson and Colton Burleson that isn’t the case.
“It’s kind of unique have four players from the same school,” Head Baseball Coach Doug Wren said.
Not only was this unique to the coach, but it also baffled the young baseball players as well, when they learned that they would all be playing together once again, but this time, at the collegiate level.
“We’ve been on the team together since we were about 9 or 10,” said freshman second basemen Jacob Soisson, who is batting .257 with 9 RBI’s this season.
“We’ve been together for about six, seven, or eight years now and its built a lot of chemistry between us,” said Sophomore Second Basemen Tyler Ernest who is batting .350 with 6 RBI’s.
Sophomore First Basemen Parker Phillips who is batting .143 with 4 RBI’s said, ” we never thought we’d play together after high school.” It wasn’t until the summer when Phillips and teammate Tyler Ernest were informed that their younger high school companions would be attending TJC.
“We love to recruit guys from winning programs. These guys are disciplined and they play the game the right way,” said Coach Wren.
The Jasper baseball program has been one of the best coached and consistent high school baseball programs in the state of Texas. Jasper has been in the playoffs for 17 years and won the AAA state championship.
Freshman Pitcher Colton Burleson who is 2-1 with a 2.00 ERA in 18 innings pitched said, “Whenever we’re all out there at the same time, you can tell that everything goes a lot smoother than usual.”
Playing together on the field makes a huge difference for these players. The combination of Burleson pitching and Phillips at first will make for a good combination to pick players off.
“We weren’t going for one specific player. They all just seemed to fit our mold. We saw good guys and brought them on board” said Coach Wren.
Considering how these players have performed and the continuing winning program of Jasper, more players should be expected to come to TJC in future years.
