Blake Craft signs with Enterprise State Community College

Baseball is a game that is all about numbers and percentages. A .300 batting average, getting a hit three out of every 10 trips to the plate, will put you in the Hall of Fame.

But Charles Henderson is batting 1.000 in a certain category this year: sending players to college.

Blake Craft, a pitcher for Charles Henderson, recently agreed to play baseball for Enterprise State Community College, and with it made it a clean sweep for the 2014 senior baseball players. All five senior members of the 2014 team have signed to play college athletics.

Pitcher John Michael Stephens is headed to Central Alabama Community College, Hunter Baggett signed with Southern Union, Xavius Burden inked with Miles College, Craft in Enterprise bound and outfielder John Johnson is staying in Troy to play football for the Trojans.

Craft’s signing came about rather quickly over the last few weeks, and all started with one phone call from Craft’s American Legion coach John Rushing.

“Coach Rushing was talking to the coaches from Enterprise and told them I could pitcher,” Craft said. “And one day the coach called me up and told me he wanted me to come play for them. I am extremely happy to have the opportunity to keep playing baseball.”

Craft was a spot starter for the Charles Henderson Trojans in each of the last two seasons. He pitched the Trojans to wins on opening day and Senior Day in 2014, and threw two quality innings against Ardmore in the AHSAA 4A State Championship Series.

Charles Henderson head coach Derek Irons said Craft was a key part of the Trojans’ success the last two seasons.

“You can’t win two state titles in a row with just four or five guys,” said Irons. “Blake was great piece of our rotation and was a solid, reliable arm out of the bull pen as well. He knew and understood his role, and helped us win ball games.”

Craft possesses four pitchers, a fastball, change up, cutter and splitter, and says he can’t wait to try out his favorite pitch against junior college competition.

“I like the splitter the best,” Craft said. “I threw it once in the bullpen at practice and after that it became my 0-2 pitch. It is almost an obsession now.”

Craft can’t help but smile when remembering his final two years of high school, and a pair of state titles.

He also feels the Class of 2014 still has quite a bit of athletic history left to write.

“All of us worked hard to get the chance to keep playing,” Craft said. “We will all keep working hard in the future. When you win one title, you just want to win all of them.”