Baylor senior Henry Ford worked overtime on Sunday night — a one-on-one hitting session with co-head coach Mike Kinney — in preparation for Monday's rivalry game with a region title on the line.
Ford's hunger for improvement showed up in a big way during an 11-0 home win over McCallie Monday which sealed the top spot in Division II-AA's East region.
Baylor's 6-foot-5, 220-pound University of Virginia signee blasted home runs in his first two plate appearances against Florida signee Grayson Smith, giving Ford 13 homers on the season as the Red Raiders won their 18th straight and are now 19-1 overall and 10-0 the region.
"It's safe to say Henry is one of the scariest hitters in the state," said Baylor co-head coach Greg Elie, whose team has now hit a state-best 42 home runs this season.
"What he can do at the plate at any given moment is special. On his first home run, he hit the ball to the moon. It cleared the lights in left field. Then the next at-bat he hits a ball up the middle that doesn't get more than 15-feet off the ground and it rides out of here.
"I am super proud of the way he approached today and the swings he took. This team continues to pass the baton and we can't be more proud of them."
As good as Ford was, junior teammate Tomas Valincius was just as special in Monday's blowout victory.
Valincius locked in with senior catcher Mack Whitcomb to fire a one-hit shutout with 11 strikeouts over five innings. The Virginia commit sat five of the last six batters he faced down on strikes to improve to 5-0 with a 0.50 earned run average over 28 innings with 51 strikeouts.
On top of his gaudy pitching stats, Valincius continued his dominance in the batter's box too.
The left-handed slugger hit his 10th home run of the season on a no-doubter in the second inning. His 2-for-2 day at the plate drove his team-high batting average up to .526 for the season, while his three runs batted in give him the team-lead at 35.
"I think Tomas is the complete package as a baseball player," Kinney said. "We asked him to turn down the emotion and come out with focus instead of the fire that this rivalry brings. He came out and dominated in every way. He was not a great player when he first got here, but he is now. We are really excited about how far he has come."
Baylor senior Will Pettway helped enforce the 10-run rule with a sharp 2-run single to left field in the third inning.
McCallie (13-12, 4-3) had its lone hit come from Ole Miss signee Hudson Calhoun, while senior shortstop Sebastian Leinberger made the play of the day on a diving play to his right in which he got to his feet to throw out John Emendorfer.
With a region title in hand, the Red Raiders are still hungry for much more and will face the Blue Tornado twice more this week.
"We never play a baseball game for any other reason than to try to show dominance and be the best version of ourselves," Kinney said. "We will do that again in these next two games. I am proud of our team for clinching a No. 1 berth in our state tournament. Our team plays with pride every time we take the field."
Contact Patrick MacCoon at pmaccoon@timesfreepress.com.