Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Elks hope to advance with Vance.
Trey Vance took his place behind home plate and pulled his face mask down as he settled into his low crouch.
A pair of black batting gloves — one in each back pocket — flapped in the breeze as Vance, who has been the starting catcher at Elkins for four years, watched the batter step into the rectangle-shaped batter’s box. He looked at the batter’s feet and his position in the box. Those two factors would determine what Vance did next.
Most high school catchers look to a coach in the dugout to give them a signal of what pitch to throw each batter. The catcher then relays that to the pitcher using unique sign language with their fingers. The signals could be as simple as one finger down for a fastball, two fingers for a breaking pitch, four fingers for a changeup.
That is where Vance is different than most. He calls every pitch for the Elks (15-4), using his vast experience behind the plate and high baseball intelligence to quickly determine what pitch would be most effective to get the batter out.
“He does a great job in calling a game,” said Jeff Eddleman, the longtime Elkins coach who has hoisted a couple of state championship trophies. “He’s had four great years for us. He knows the game, he studies the hitters and I have complete confidence in him.”
Vance has been a mainstay for Elkins since his freshman season. Even back then, Eddleman knew he had a natural-born leader.
“You could see it, the way he approached everything,” Eddleman said. “He’s such an intelligent kid and he uses that. He knows the tendencies of the batters because he pays attention to details that most kids can’t pick up on.”
Vance was a key cog as Elkins won the 3A-1 West Conference title, going undefeated in league play. The Elks stumbled in the conference tournament last week, losing back-to-back games to Lincoln and West Fork, knocking them to the No. 4 seed in this week’s 3A Region 1 Tournament in Lincoln.
During the season, Vance put up solid numbers including a .545 batting average with three home runs and nine doubles
to go along with a teambest 30 RBIs.
“I think we’ve dealt with adversity well this year, although we haven’t had a lot until this tournament,” Vance said. “I think we’ll rebound from this. Yeah, it sucks right now, but I think we’ll bounce back from this. I think this will light a fire under us.”
Vance has signed a letter of intent to play baseball at the University of the Ozarks in Clarksville, earning an academic
scholarship as one of the top graduating seniors at Elkins with a 3.8 grade-point average.
He plans to major in physical education and minor in business with a goal of becoming a coach. He credits a couple of his coaches who have had a big influence on him, including Eddleman.