Now that the high school baseball season is fully underway across the commonwealth, it might be helpful to give players some numbers to keep in mind as they pull on their cleats and hit the diamond.

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association has statistics in total only as current as of March of 2023, so some of these individual records and placements may have changed, but let’s have a look at the two primary aspects of America’s favorite pasttime.

Batting Average

Let’s start with career batting average.

Some say hitting a fastball is the most difficult thing to do in all of sports. This is why a career average of .300 or above factually means you’ve done your job only 30-percent of time (which would get most of us fired) it’s still incredibly impressive.

But to exceed well over half the time as all-time leader, Wolfe County’s Dylan Creech, did from 2009 to 2013 is nearly unbelievable. Creech ended his high school career batting .584 in 421 appearances at the plate.

Closer to home, Phelps’ Michael Ray Charles finished with an even .500 average; Charles hit the ball half the time in the 310 instances he was in the batter’s box. He rests in ninth-place on the all-time list.

Hits

Most baseball fans can either remember or have seen footage of Pete Rose breaking Ty Cobb’s longstanding record of MLB career hits. Rose collected 4,256 hits, but, keep in mind, he had 24 years to accomplish that.

The following had far fewer years, such as the all-time leader J.B. Schmidt, who played from 1994 to 2000. In that time, Schmidt racked up 275 hits for Harrison County. In the region, Letcher County standout Tanner Sexton had 209 hits and Paintsville Tiger star Mike Minix Jr. finished with 201 over his high school career.

And in a single season?

That would be Taylor County’s Brooks Ewing with 83.

RBIs

Call them ribbies, ribeyes, or ribs, in the end Runs Batted In is a stat that sometimes takes a back seat to both hits and, certainly, home runs. But they’re just as important.

It may come as no surprise that Wolfe County’s, and also the leader in hits, Dylan Creech is top of the mountain with 256, a whopping 87 of those coming in the 2010 season alone, which is also good for the all-time record.

Home runs

And now we reach the record most see as the king of all batting records – home runs.

From the solo home run to the grand slam, KHSAA record books covers it all. But the high school player to hit more dingers than any other player is Paul Morse of Danville. Morse knocked 65 while in high school with 23 of those coming in his senior year.

Grayson County’s Jordan White holds the top spot for the most home runs hit in a single game when on May 19, 2008, he sent four into the stands.

And the more uncommon grand slam – paralyzing the opposing team by four runs in a single swing – the player who did this more than any other to date is Russellville’s Matthew Croslin with four total in 2000. This is also, by the way, the career record for gram slams in a single season.

Jason Whitis, of Pulaski Southwestern, hit the jackpot three times in one game.

And here’s a few other all-time batting records of interest:

• Davis Corbin was hit by a pitch 61 times over his high school career, with nearly half of those in one season alone – 30 in 2018.
• In 1984, William Campbell, of Middlesboro, finished with 10 RBIs in a single game again Pineville.
• 22 Heath’s Chad Wright slammed 22 triples from 2004 to 2008.

Coming up for our second installment for all-time high school numbers series we’ll take a look at pitching records. So keep an eye out.