Choice looming for Hogs' signee

Greenbrier's Cayden Wallace has to work on his physical fitness for baseball, but coming through in the clutch appears to come natural.

"Whenever the game is on the line, I want to be up to come through for my team," said the senior third baseman, who was an Arkansas-Democrat-Gazette All-Arkansas Preps first-team pick after batting .514 with 22 RBI and 6 home runs last years as a junior for the Panthers. "I'm not a me guy. I don't really get caught up in the 'all about me' stuff.

"I'm more about the team and coming through whenever they need."

Wallace has delivered repeatedly for the Panthers since he carved out a starting spot as a freshman, and he had no designs on stopping for his senior season. But after just eight games, the coronavirus pandemic ended the University of Arkansas signee's Greenbrier career.

Greenbrier won six of its first eight games, including a 5-4 triumph over Little Rock Catholic in the Southwest Sporting Goods Classic at the University of Central Arkansas on March 11. The Panthers were set to face Cabot the next day when the tournament was called off.

"It was like one day we were playing, and the next day that was it," Greenbrier first-year Coach Chad Cope said. "You really don't see the world of sports shut down like it did, really in about a two- or three-day span. That was tough for all of us, especially my seniors. For some of them, that game against Catholic was the last one they'll ever play.

"I didn't really even get to tell my kids anything because it was like, 'Here you go. Bye.' "

Wallace's career is positioned to continue, but he has a choice to make first. His can either suit up for Coach Dave Van Horn's Razorbacks or declare for the Major League Baseball Draft. He's rated the 114th prospect by MLB.com.

But Wallace, a 6-1, 205-pound Under Armour All-American, was more concerned about his high school teammates than his own future.

"I wasn't really down about the situation itself, because safety is obviously first," he said. "It was just that some of my friends will never play baseball again. Plus, we felt we had a team that would be able to make a run this year.

"We were sitting there at 6-2 and playing really well. Then everything was just over."

Wallace's day-to-day preparation hasn't changed much since the season ended. He's working out feverishly and getting in as many cuts as he can in his home batting cage.

"When you see a kid like him, who's that good and has been hyped so much, you kind of wonder about their work ethic," said Cope, who spent the previous 10 seasons at Watson Chapel. "But with Cayden, he is one of the hardest-working kids I've ever seen. He was the first one to practice and one of the last ones at the end. There are no shortcuts with him.

"He stays motivated and works his rear end off. He doesn't complain and just does whatever is he's asked."

Wallace was complimentary of his short time with Cope.

"We all loved [former coach Tye Glover] like crazy, but Coach Cope had us going from the start," he said. "We started practicing in August, and we'd never done that before. Doing that really helped us at the beginning of the season because of how much rain we had and how cold it was outside.

"But just him doing that and being a defensive-minded coach had us more ready than at any other time since I've been here."

Cope believes Wallace will be ready for whatever comes next.

"I think he'll be the Razorbacks' starting third baseman next year unless he gets injured or something," he said. "That's if he makes it to Arkansas, though, because he's going to have to make a decision. But there's no doubt in my mind that he'll come through wherever he is.

"He's a physical specimen and is so developed. The volume of pitching he'll see will change, of course, but he'll mature and adjust easily. He's just that good of a player."

Sports on 05/02/2020