Southeast Missourian co-player of the year: Oak Ridge's Brett Thomas

Incoming Oak Ridge senior Brett Thomas dreamed up a best-case scenario while driving to a summer baseball showcase at the University of Missouri.

"I went to Mizzou and I was actually kind of joking around with my dad on the way up there," he said. "I said maybe I'll pitch the game of my life and hit a couple home runs and maybe Mizzou will want me to play for them, and we were just kind of laughing about it."

That's pretty much what happened.

Thomas, the co-Southeast Missourian player of the year, pitched four shutout innings June 25 in front of the Missouri coaching staff. All four of his pitches -- fastball, cutter, curveball and changeup -- were effective and his velocity reached 88 mph.

He was offered a spot on the Missouri roster by coach Tim Jamieson and pitching coach Tony Vitello the next day. And Friday, just nine days after becoming an eligible recruit, Thomas verbally committed to the Tigers.

"Basically me and my mom and dad talked about it, and we didn't think we'd get a better offer, that's for sure, and I just decided I'm going to call up the coach," Thomas said. "I called up the pitching coach -- coach Vitello -- and I told him and I was verbally committing and what's the next step."

The next step will be a formal commitment and signing later this summer, but Thomas will get to play "stress-free" baseball for now. While the process may not have lasted long, Thomas was a more reserved and anxious version of himself while talking about the still-pending decision earlier in the week.

"I don't know," he said when asked what had concerned him about committing. "Just having to make kind of a life-changing decision this early. You know you can always decide where you want to go to college or most kids can a month before they go, but I was kind of being pressured to decide in the next three weeks. And @ 17 years old, your summer you kind of want to hang out, but then you've got to make something like that, so it was definitely a little stressful there for a while."

Thomas said he followed his performance at Missouri with a couple sub-par outings.

"I didn't throw great," Thomas said of his latest start for the Cherokees baseball 17-and-under team. "I threw decent. We got the win, but I didn't have my best, best stuff and that's like the second start I haven't had my best stuff. I mean it went good but not great, so I just figured I didn't know if the stress was getting to me or the pressure. I just decided to get it over with and now I can just go pitch."

While Thomas stars on the mound and as a power-hitting shortstop for Oak Ridge, he will focus on pitching at Missouri.

The numbers Thomas put up for the Blue Jays during his junior season are dizzying. He was 7-2 with a 0.59 ERA. He struck out 92 batters and walked 25 in his 59 1/3 innings pitched.

"We didn't pitch him against the lesser teams," Oak Ridge coach Jason Niswonger said. "He only pitched in big games and was 7-2. If you look at our schedule, you think there's no way they lose to these team and beat those teams, but a lot of that was because Brett was pitching those big games."

One of Thomas' losses came against Greenville in a game where he did not allow an earned run. The other came to Cooter in the state quarterfinals.

At the plate, Thomas hit .547 and slugged 1.147 with 12 home runs while striking out just five times. He was held hitless in just two games all season and accounted for 40 of his team's 134 RBI during a 13-13 season.

"There were times when he definitely got frustrated because he was concerned about the team results not just his stats," Niswonger said. "He's just consistent. He goes out and does the same thing every game. I think consistent emotionally. It doesn't matter if we're playing a really good team or a really bad team, he's going to approach it the same way."

Thomas said he was much more concerned with whether he was producing runs than his batting average.

"You just kind of have to know whether you're playing good or not," he said. "Stats can only go so far when it comes to wins and losses."

His performance this season was a marked improvement over his impressive sophomore season when he hit .411 with five homers and 19 RBIs to go along with a 4-1 pitching record and 1.91 ERA.

"I think the thing that really separated his junior year from his sophomore year was he hit the weights incredibly hard," Niswonger said. "I preach it and I preach it and I preach it and some kids just believe it, or they just don't get it or they just don't want to put the time in. But he has lifted harder than anybody I know over the last year and that's really made the difference."

He also consulted pitching coaches for the first time over the winter, saying he learned "that my mechanics were terrible."

"Definitely this winter I changed a lot with my mechanics -- just where I release the ball, leg kick, everything," he said. "I had no torque from my hips, that was a big thing.

"I could always throw, but they said I wasn't as good as I should be, basically. Talent got me far enough but to make that next step to become really good, you've got to make adjustments. You can't just ride that forever."

He's hoping to take a few more steps at Missouri a year from now.

"They give you every resource possible to make yourself as good as possible and reach your potential, so I couldn't use that as an excuse if I didn't pitch well at any other college," Thomas said. "Basically [Vitello] just wants me to come in and work hard, and he thinks I have good potential. If I do that, I'll be fine."