FORMER SOUTHSIDE, UCA STAR GRAY PRIMED FOR MLB DRAFT

Tyler Gray is riding the University of Central Arkansas’ team bus back to Conway. Pine trees, rural filling stations, seamless strings of 18-wheelers. A baseball life covers thousands of highway miles. But for Gray, the journey may be just beginning. His road from virtual unknown to Southland Conference Pitcher of the Year status certainly wasn’t without some highs and lows. Monday, the former Southside right-hander expects to be drafted as part of Major League Baseball’s two-day draft. There are 40 rounds, plus compensatory picks. Gray was picked by the Minnesota Twins last year but declined in order to pitch one more season at UCA. “If they’ll hang in there, there’s a lot of late bloomers,” said Allen Gum, University of Central Arkansas coach. “The credit goes to Dale Harpenau; he saw something in him before anyone else. We were able to get Tyler on Dale’s recommendation. He thought he would be special, and boy was he right.” Harpenau, then the coach at UAFS, actually signed Gray before he’d ever thrown a varsity pitch. “The year before, I had seen him blossom (summer league),” Harpenau said. “Looking at the body, I thought he could grow into something special. “He ended up being the guy I thought he would be.” Gray, who finished his collegiate career with a 19-10 record, started the 2018 season as UCA’s closer. By April, he had become the Bears’ Friday night starter. “If you would have told me after my freshman year, that I would be starting, I would have told you there was no shot,” Gray said. ”(But) honestly, last fall, we had a scout day. I didn’t have that good of a day, but they (scouts) asked me to throw a couple of more breaking balls.” This spring, Gray also fine-tuned his change-up. “Sometimes you need a good back-end arm,” Gum said. “He worked on a third pitch, a change-up. He worked himself into that role. “He was the Friday night guy (starter) and the Southland Conference pitcher of the Year.” Wanna pitch? A lot of Gray’s development also coincided with some things Greenwood coach Trey Holloway recognized in him as well. Actually, Gray’s laundry list of those who opened doors includes four distinguished baseball men — Harpenau, Gum, Holloway and former travel ball coach Jim Wiley. But it was Holloway, then a Southside assistant, who talked Gray into pitching one night in a junior varsity game. But here’s where the story gets crazy. “My junior year, I didn’t play that much (varsity) high school ball,” Gray said. “I broke my (left) wrist running to first. Coach Holloway was messing around one day and he said, ‘Let’s get you to pitch one game.’ He started to worked with me.” “The crazy story is, and most people don’t understand it, his junior year he breaks his wrist,” Holloway said. “I told him I wanted him to pitch, so we put sleeves over his cast and it just kind of goes from there. He continued to get better and better. He did lessons with Jorden Lawrence that summer. He was offered by UAFS his junior year, and he hadn’t even pitched a (varsity) game yet.” To this day, Gray continues to work out in the off-season with Holloway. “He’s (Holloway) taught me a lot,” Gray said. Loaded arms Southside had more pitching than it knew what do with Gray’s junior season. “They had (Ty) Harpenau, (Tanner) Wiley, Jorden and Easton (Stallings), and all of those guys pitched in college,” Holloway said. “His senior year, (Gray) developed into one of the best pitchers with Ty, and it’s because he worked his tail off.” Gray is proof in the pudding that it’s never too late to learn a new trick. “I talk to Drew (Smyly) all the time about getting better,” Holloway said. “You’ve got to hit your spot, but most of it is the mindset. Once he (Gray) got the confidence he continued to get better and better every single year, he really took off. You’ve got to be able to handle the adversity. “Sometimes in life you pound the stone and don’t see any benefits, and all of the sudden six or seven years later, it starts paying off.” “When I was younger (travel ball), the only time I pitched was when we were up a lot, and that was to save pitching,” Gray said. Tour of duty After being picked by the Twins last year, it would have been easy for a lot of players to jump at the money and forgo the final year of college. But that’s not Tyler Gray. “I didn’t come back for individual awards; I came back to be with the guys,” Gray said. “It meant more to me last year, the way we lost in the (conference) championship game, to come back. If if had to make the same decision over, I would do it again.” Whoever Gray pitches for next year (or this summer), he’ll do so without Wiley. “Me and Tanner have played on the same team since we were 9,” Gray said. “I played with (Cody) Davenport a lot, too. I played with Tanner 13 years and with Davenport six years.” Wiley’s dad, Jim, also taught Gray how to throw a curveball. The draft Gray’s been told he could go anywhere from the sixth round to the 10th round. He also knows MLB drafts are far different from the mainstream drafts of the NFL and NBA. Anything is possible. “I’ve talked to a bunch of teams, and you get the same stuff out of all of them,” he said. “I told them, ‘It’s not about the money, it’s about getting in there and taking my shot and seeing what happens.”’ Gray grew up a big Cardinals fan, so that would be awesome to pitch in Busch Stadium. But ... “Any team is worth it,” he said. “I’m open to every single organization.” Coaching prospects Gray said he’s a few credits short of earning his college diploma. If things at the next level don’t work out, he hopes to coach. His first stop? Greenwood High School. “Honestly, if baseball doesn’t work out I would like to work with coach Holloway,” Gray said.

FORMER SOUTHSIDE, UCA STAR GRAY PRIMED FOR MLB DRAFT

KEVIN TAYLOR

Times Record | 6/3/2018

PHOTO CREDIT: UCA