One of the more dominant players on the diamond in 2014 has been recognized.
Jordan High School's Colton Shaver, who helped lead the Beetdiggers to the Class 5A championship in 2014, was named the Gatorade Utah Baseball Player of the Year Tuesday morning. Gatorade, in collaboration with USA Today High School Sports, named Shaver their 2014 recipient. He is the first baseball player from Jordan to ever win the award.
"Colton Shaver is just so well-disciplined and he brings a lot of composure and good leadership to the field," said Jordan High head coach Chad Fife in a release. "His pitch recognition is unbelievable. He hits an off-speed pitch better than he hits a fastball, which will help him at the next level when he moves on. His work ethic is untouchable."
The 6-foot-1, 220-pound catcher and right-hander batted .500 with 12 home runs, 39 RBI, 26 extra-base hits and also had a 1.095 slugging percentage. On the mound, he posted a 6-0 record with a 1.02 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 55 innings pitched. Perhaps the banner moment of Shaver's banner senior season came on May 14, when he hit a walk-off, three-run home run to beat Fremont in the second round of the 5A state tournament, a day he had a 16-strikeout effort on the bump.
The Jordan star also bounced back from a difficult start to his 2013-2014 senior year with the Beetdiggers. A defensive lineman on Jordan's football team this fall, Shaver missed several games due to doctors having found a blood clot in a vein between his collarbone and first rib that had become compressed. After the clot had been dissolved, a surgeon removed part of the rib to prevent more compression and future problems. Shaver eventually recovered, finding his way back to the football field to help the Beetdiggers, the 2012 5A champs, reach the 5A semifinals where they lost to rival Brighton.
Shaver has signed a NLI (National Letter of Intent to play baseball on an athletic scholarship at BYU this fall. Shaver's 2014 honor follows in the footsteps of recent prep baseball stars such as Riley Gates (Snow Canyon, 2013), Kayden Porter (Spanish Fork, 2012-2013), Adam Duke (Spanish Fork, 2010), Marcus Littlewood (2008-2009, Pine View) and others.
Jordan's second baseball title first coming in 2007 when Fife was an assistant is just the second in the school's 107-year history.
-Chris Kamrani
Twitter: @CKTribune