It’s been said that necessity is the mother of invention.
It has also been said that desperate times call for desperate measures.
Whichever phrase you prefer, the move by South Arkansas College baseball coach Cannon Lester to put Colin Reed at shortstop is apt for both.
Freshman Kenner Lauterbach was penciled in to be the Stars’ shortstop at the beginning of the year, but an injury forced him to take a medical redshirt and miss the season.
With Lauterbach out, the Stars tried several candidates, but none of them panned out.
The situation reached a critical point at the end of the Stars’ series with National Park when freshman Gabe Kuttenkuler, who was moved from third base to play shortstop, got hurt trying to turn a double play.
It was then that the idea of moving Reed, who had been the Stars’ No. 3 pitcher in the rotation, came to fruition.
With injuries piling up, Reed and Connor Pierce began working with the position players in case an emergency came up.
That emergency came last week at Henderson State when infielder Alton Gatson got sick during the doubleheader against Arkansas-Rich Mountain, and the move was made to put Reed at shortstop.
The move paid immediate dividends with Reed picking up an RBI single while making several outstanding plays on defense in the Stars’ 2-1 win in Game 1.
“It was fantastic,” Lester said. “We brought him in for Al in the first game. He got sick and was feeling nauseous. We decided why not. He actually had our first RBI. I think Ian (McCubbin) hit a triple and then we strike out. He came up and gets to two strikes and gets a big hit to start the scoring in a game we won.
“The turf at Henderson is really fast, and he made a play in the seventh to lead off the inning where he came across second base on the run. It was honestly a play we probably hadn’t made all year, and it was in a really big spot. He made a bare-handed play in the six hole on a floater and flipped it to second. I think he had seven or eight putouts. He was unbelievable. It was the first time I looked at coach (Hayden) Dow and I felt good about our shortstop.”
The idea of Reed being a position player had never crossed Lester’s mind. Reed, who transferred from Southern Arkansas, was a two-way player for the Muleriders, but his arm strength and ability on the mound won out over remaining a two-way player.
“It was never really thought of,” Lester said. “I will say when the coaches over at SAU were telling me about him, they go, ‘Hey, if you ever need a center fielder, he can go get it with the best of them. We’re just not sure if he can hit.’ I believe he was a two-way for quite a bit of his freshman year, but I think the arm talent was too good, so they decided to stick with him there.”
Lester said having Reed on the field made a difference in other aspects.
“He’s an energy guy out there,” Lester said. “He jumps around and pumps the pitchers up. He’s a really quiet guy off the field, but in that setting, he was that annoying guy and it was awesome. I think after (Alex) Show(alter) went down, he sent me a long text and he was like, ‘Hey, I haven’t done it in a long time, but if you ever need me, I can play infield.’
“He had made some plays throughout the year on the mound that pitchers don’t make, so I knew he was pretty athletic. We never really saw this coming, but you just never know, especially with the way it’s been going this year. He’s stepped up, and I see him sticking there for a while. We’ll see how it goes. He’s got a lot of competitiveness in him, so I think he’ll be just fine.”
A redshirt freshman, Reed went 3-for-12 in the four games against Arkansas-Rich Mountain.
SouthArk opens a three-game series against Arkansas State Mid-South today at noon in Millington, Tenn., and will host Arkansas State-Mountain Home next week to cap the regular season.
With those series remaining, Reed finds himself as a key component for the Stars down the stretch, but not in the way in the coaching staff had envisioned at the outset of the season.
“If we can get Gabe back and cement him in at third, and Showalter could both be back for Mountain Home,” Lester said. “It would be huge to get them back. It gives us a few more options on the infield and outfield.
“It gives us some depth and maybe solidifies the defense a little bit. It’s really something that we lacked. I thought Colin was fantastic.”