Published: June 01, 2009 02:36 pm      

Whitis, Stein make All-State

Taylor Whitis and Jeremy Stein took different roads to this year’s Oklahoma Coaches Association All-State baseball game. But there was no doubt that both were among the best small-school players in Oklahoma when their varsity careers ended earlier this month.

Whitis, who played at Latta as a freshman and sophomore, transferred to Roff as a junior and played in four straight Class B championship games, finally winning a title with the Tigers this spring.

Stein, meanwhile, played on eight straight state tournament teams at Tupelo and, as a sophomore and junior, was a key contributor as the Tigers won championships in the spring and fall of 2007.

Their roles were also vastly different on their respective clubs during the 2008-2009 school year.

While Whitis was just one of the stars on one of the most talented teams in Roff’s long and storied baseball history, Stein was the undisputed senior leader of a young team that overachieved while reaching the Class B state tournament last fall and again this spring.

“With all the talent we lost off those state championship teams, he kind of had to be the nucleus of what we were going to try to do, and he took that role and ran with it both fall and spring,” Tupelo coach Clay Weller said of Stein, his center fielder and the only upperclassman in the Tigers’ batting order last fall and again this spring. “I couldn’t ask for more production out of him this year. He always seemed to get a big hit or make a big play in games that really mattered.”

Coming off a sensational fall campaign in which he hit over .500 for a rebuilding Tupelo squad that made an unlikely trip to the state tournament despite winning just 10 games, Stein posted a gaudy .559 batting average and had seven home runs, 15 doubles, three triples, 36 RBIs and 22 stolen bases (in 23 attempts) from the leadoff spot in the Tupelo batting order this spring. The Tigers also more than doubled their victory total from the fall, winning 22 games this spring and being ranked in the Class B top 10 all season.

“Jeremy’s season shows you how important it was for our other guys to step up and do what they did,” Weller said. “We look at (All-State) as a team award, not just an individual award, and I think Jeremy would tell you the same thing.

“He’s deserving,” Weller added. “I know it’s not a four-year award, but you look at what he did during his school career and it matches up with just about anything anybody was able to accomplish. A lot of kids don’t get a chance to go to one state tournament, and he went to eight. I’m proud that he was named All-State. It’s just another honor to add to his high school career.”

Whitis hit .381 while batting fifth in the Roff order for most of the spring, with four home runs and 23 RBIs.

“His batting average is a little bit skewed, because he led our team in walks (27) and being hit by pitch (13),” Roff coach Clay Weller said of Whitis. “He and the bottom of the order were the difference late in the season. Our top four (juniors Aaron Cornell, Dayne Parker, Brendan McCurry and Blake Logan) were pretty consistent -- they all had huge years. A lot of times, people would pitch around those guys, and Taylor got some big hits.”

As solid as Whitis was at the plate for the Tigers the past two years, he was even better behind it, establishing himself as one of Oklahoma’s best defensive catchers in any class.

“When we started doing All-State stats, we couldn’t remember and passed ball, and when we looked back we only found one,” Simon said. “That’s really unheard of. I don’t know who’s going to catch for us next year, but we’re going to miss that. It’s a security blanket, knowing that you’re not going to have any passed balls.

“Not many people ran on us, but there was a reason they didn’t,” Simon added. “Taylor is about as good a defensive catcher as I’ve coached. He worked harder than any catcher I’ve ever had -- that’s the thing that really stands out about him.”

Simon said that as good as Whitis’s stats were, though, the intangibles he provided were just as important to the Tigers’ success.

“If he has a downfall, it’s that he expects too much of himself,” he said. “That hurt him sometimes, but it also gave him that fire that made him a sparkplug for us. All of our guys respected him as far as how he played the game.”

Stein and Whitis will be members of the Small East squad for the OCA All-State game, which will be played July 27 at J. L. Johnson Stadium on the campus of Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. Small schools will play at 4:30 p.m., with the large schools to follow at about 7 p.m.