Cade Adkins has been making an impact for the Eupora Eagles on the baseball diamond since his eighth-grade year.
The dual position standout pitched for the last three seasons but has made a contribution every season along the way. Second-year coach Cole Mcbride was expecting some big things out of him before the season ended prematurely last season due to the pandemic and even bigger things are expected in 2021.
Before the season throws out first pitch, though, Adkins signed scholarship papers to play for Blue Mountain College last week. It’s an opportunity that Mcbride said is well-deserved for the work that his pitcher has put in over the years.
“Cade is a great kid and an extremely hard worker,” Mcbride said. “I expect him to get a lot of innings this year pitching wise. He’s going to be one of those top few guys this year and he’ll get a lot of work on the mound and at the plate and in the field.”
The 6’3 hurler threw in 11 games as a freshman, 10 games as a sophomore and had five appearances in 10 of the games that the Eagles played last year. He has a career 4.01 earned run average with four starts and 64.2 innings pitched. His junior season was shaping up to be his best as he had 17 strikeouts in his first five chances on the mound but he’ll get a chance to go out strong this year.
McBride said that Adkins throws a fastball, curveball and changeup and the strength of his pitching is how he can place the ball. It’s made him unique among others on his level because of the difficulty of locating more than one pitch.
“He does a really good job of locating all three pitches and a lot of guys have trouble locating one on this level, much less multiple,” Mcbride said. “Over the past couple of years he’s gotten a lot more comfortable with his pitches and stepping up his command.”
Former Mississippi high school coach Curt Fowler is leading the charge at Blue Mountain after several successful seasons at Potts Camp and New Albany. Fowler and his staff saw something they could work with in Adkins and Mcbride noticed just how excited they were to get a player of his potential.
Mcbride also believes that Adkins was drawn to the program’s growth over the years and felt he was a great fit in the culture.
“I know coach Fowler and he runs a pretty tight ship up there. They’ve really turned things around the last couple of years and have a couple of winning seasons back to back,” Mcbride said of Blue Mountain. “They’re really trying to reshape that program and have come a long way. They’ve done a really good job of getting the right type of guys in there.”
As for Adkins, Mcbride believes his best baseball is ahead of him. With a good frame and something to work with in his pitching arsenal, there’s a lot of growth that can be made from now until then.
First, he’ll get a chance to go out on a high note with teammates like Carter May and Parker Knight whom have already signed college scholarships as well.
