Lee Academy senior Graydon Gullick was selected to play in the Class 3A to 5A MSAIS All-Star Game at 3 p.m. May 17 at Trustmark Park in Pearl.
Gullick is the first Lee Academy baseball all-star since 2014.
“It’s a real blessing,” Gullick said. “I couldn’t do it without my coaches and teammates. Everybody around me, they’ve helped me get to the position I am today and I feel blessed to be able to go represent Lee Academy in that.”
Lee coach Brock McKnight also enjoyed coaching Gullick.
“When you hit .420 in a really good baseball division and you have a 1.67 ERA with a whole bunch of strikeouts,” said McKnight on Gullick being in the all-star game. “Great kid, great person, great family. Once I met him, I knew he was going to get it. Once we did the voting, I knew he was going to get it. It was a no-brainer. Great baseball player. Even better person.”
Allen Pavatte from Madison Ridgeland Academy is the head coach of Gullick’s team in the all-star game and Chris Mcminn from Magnolia Heights is the assistant coach.
Gullick, a shortstop and pitcher, who will be playing for Mississippi Delta Community College next season, could play both positions in the all-star game.
“Everybody will get a chance to play multiple positions,” McKnight said. “They’ll plug kids in left and right and get kids seen.”
Gullick is a right-handed pitcher and a left-handed hitter.
“I just picked up a bat and started swinging left-handed,” Gullick said. “That’s what I’ve gone through ever since then. I just picked up a ball and threw it right-handed and that’s where I started.”
Gullick writes with his right hand, but no one ever questioned him batting lefty.
“I never had a problem with it,” Gullick said.
Gullick does not plan to become a switch hitter.
“I’ve thought about it, but it would just be kind of hard to learn how to bat right-handed when I’m so late in my lifetime,” he said.
Gullick said batting left-handed gives him an advantage against pitchers.
“You really don’t see that many lefties, so being a left-handed bat against a right-handed is kind of easier than just being righty on righty.”
The combination of pitching right-handed and hitting left-handed helped Gullick play a major role in the Colts winning the first round of the playoffs. It was the first time Lee won a playoff series in Gullick’s high school career.
“For the team, I felt like it went very well,” Gullick said. “We always played together. We had each other’s backs. We never gave up on each other and, individually, I felt like I did pretty good myself. I helped the team out a lot.”
Gullick believes the Colts will be able to build on the success in the future.
“I hope I leave kids something to strive for when they get older if they want to go play college baseball,” he said.
Pitching was the Colts’ strength for much of the year, but the hitting progressed as the season went along. Even in the two playoff losses that eliminated Lee, the Colts scored seven and five runs.
“We finally realized we’ve got to hit the ball if we want to win ballgames,” Gullick said. “We finally realized we have to start hitting and we did.”
The Colts trailed 5-1 at home in Game 1 of the second round against Marshall Academy with Gullick on the mound. They came back and tied the game twice before losing 8-7. The improved hitting helped Gullick relax on the mound when Lee trailed.
“When I’m pitching like that, I have people who can hit behind my back, so we can score more than them and hopefully win a ballgame,” Gullick said.
Gullick said his best game was in round one of the playoffs when the Colts won at home against Carroll Academy 15-2.
“It was a fun game,” he said.
Carroll Academy had home field advantage, but Lee won the series 2-0.
Gullick felt part of the reason Lee had a lower seed was its tough regular season competition. He said the competition helped prepare him for college baseball.
While Gullick knows he will be playing for MDCC next year, he hopes to continue at a Division 1 school after his two years in junior college. He hopes scouts are able to see him at the all-star game.
“It’s been my dream to play Division 1 baseball since I was little and really just show what people come out of Lee Academy and how good they could be,” Gullick said.
