The Scottsdale Community College baseball team converted another Bayfield High School Wolverine.
Taed Heydinger, who was a three-sport athlete at Bayfield, signed a National Letter of Intent on Wednesday evening at BHS to play baseball for the Fighting Artichokes.
“Once I went to Scottsdale and worked out for them, I really liked it,” said Heydinger, son of Chris and Tim Heydinger. “I liked the atmosphere down there and, when they offered me to come play down there, I couldn’t pass it up.”
It was a long process for Heydinger, as he weighed multiple options throughout the recruiting process. Another school on Heydinger’s radar was Arizona State, but being a Sun Devil would have been for academics only.
Scottsdale is a two-year program in the Arizona Community College Athlete Conference. The 70-plus game schedule features wood bats, and Heydinger won’t have a problem transitioning to lumber after using it in Connie Mack summer league games for years.
While at Scottsdale, Heydinger said he will pitch while getting doses of time in the outfield.
Heydinger batted .397 with 34 runs scored, 25 runs batted in and two home runs in 2016. But it was his play on the mound that attracted Scottsdale’s 12th-year head coach Alex Cherney. He may have only had a 2-2 record but had a mind whopping 1.33 earned-run average and allowed only five earned runs the whole year. He had 36 strikeouts and didn’t give up a single home run, holding batters to a .190 average with a .277 on-base percentage.
“He’s going to play mainly pitcher, so the wood bats will be to his advantage,” BHS head coach Jonathon Qualls said. “It’s a lot easier to throw to guys who hit wood bats than with metal. He has enough pop and good enough off-speed pitches that I think he’ll do well in a wood-bat league.”
Another reason Heydinger was drawn to Scottsdale was good friend Zane Phelps, who also signed with Scottsdale a few weeks ago. Heydinger and Phelps have known each other since the second grade and grew up playing football, basketball and baseball all the way through high school.
Joined at the hip, both Heydinger and Phelps began the school year as part of the football team that won the Colorado High School Activities Association Class 2A State Championship.
“We’re more like brothers,” Heydinger said of his relationship with Phelps. “We’ve played together forever. We’ve helped each other along the way and made each other better. Now that we’re going to the next level together, it’s just amazing.”
Heydinger and Phelps will most likely room together their first year in a big city.
“When I went down there, I really liked it,” said Heydinger. “I worked out for some other colleges in Colorado and I liked them, but it wasn’t like down in Scottsdale. Down there, it’s a big city, and I’ve lived in Bayfield my entire life. I like the change of something new. It’s going to be warm and I’ll be able to play baseball year-round and that drew me in.”
Going from being a senior to freshman can be tough, and going from a small town to a big city can be just as tough. But going from a Wolverine to an Artichoke?
“It’s unique, there’s nothing else like it,” Heydinger said. “I think it’s better than being a tiger or something that everybody else is, and I like that.”
Aside from a cohesive friendship, Scottsdale will get two primed baseball players that are used to the limelight and the pressure to perform.
“They’re getting hard workers,” Qualls said. “They proved that throughout out their high school careers. They played three sports a year. They’re in the weight room five days a week probably. Both of them could play anywhere on the field if you asked them to. I think they have a good chance to show everyone what they can do down there.”
Qualls added it was nice to have so many players from his team go off to colleges that are in the Southwest Region. Previously, Kelton McCoy signed a NLI to play at the University of New Mexico
“Of course, I hope to see these guys play in the spring,” Qualls said. “Phoenix is a pretty nice trip when it’s 20 degrees here and 80 down there, and same with Albuquerque.”
jmentzer@durangoherald.com
