Raiders’ Moore signs with Brewton-Parker

Published 11:07 pm Friday, May 15, 2009

Caleb Moore was rock steady behind the plate for Southeast’s baseball team this season. To be playing — he was always in the middle of all the action — such a demanding position, Moore exemplified what coach Jason Keller wanted from his players.

“Caleb caught every inning — that’s 156 innings — this season,” Keller said. “He’s very solid behind the plate and his biggest assets are knowing situations, his knowledge of the game and great instincts.”

Moore, a 5-foot-7-inch, 155-pound senior, has parlayed hard work during his four years at Southeast into an opportunity to extend his playing career at Brewton-Parker College, a two-year NAIA school in Mt. Vernon that competes in the Southern States Athletic Conference. He signed a combination athletic-academic scholarship Friday at South-east High.

“That’s what I’ve been dreaming about since my freshman year,” Moore said. “I’ve wanted to play college ball for a long time. I didn’t want it to end after high school. Baseball is what I love to do. It’s my favorite sport.”

The versatile Moore, who also played on the Raiders’ football team, played catcher his freshman year, shifted to the outfield in his sophomore and junior seasons, and got back behind the plate for the 2009 campaign, in which Southeast went 10-15 overall and 4-10 in Region 6-3A play.

“Catcher is probably not my best positon,” Moore said. “I think outfield is probably my strongest position. Brewton-Parker is just looking for guys to come in and work hard and be able to play several different positions. I’ve caught, played first base, I pitched a little my freshman year and I can play all three outfield positions.”

As a senior, Moore batted .289 with three doubles, one home run and 13 RBIs in 71 at-bats. At the toughest, most physically and mentally demanding positions on the diamond, Moore committed only two errors in 128 chances for a .985 fielding percentage.

While a .300 batting average is considered the sport’s primary offensive gauge, Moore did little things that make a team better.

“Caleb is a great situational hitter,” Keller said. “He can bunt, hit and run, move runners with sacrifices and drive in runs. He batted mostly in the five-hole early in the season, but our production out of the two-hole wasn’t good so we moved him up there.

“We got Michael Simpson on base about 60 percent of the time and had to do something with him. We called on Caleb to put a punt down to move him up or hit to drive him around and he did a great job with that.”

Keller said Moore’s passion for baseball cannot be underestimated in his chance to play at Brewton-Parker, which was 27-28 overall and 8-19 in conference play this season and is coached by Greg Mullins, a former big league pitcher with the Milwaukee Brewers.

“Coming into the season we had some question marks behind the plate,” Keller said. “But Caleb worked hard during the offseason and in summer ball and we felt he gave us the experience and great work ethic to be our guy behind the plate. And he did that.”

Moore said he also considered Reinhardt College and LaGrange College before choosing Brewton-Parker.

“Reinhardt offered me and I thought I was going there,” he said. “LaGrange was going to cost too much money. Brewton-Parker wound up giving me the most money for my scholarship. And it’s nice over there. It reminds me of home a little bit and the coaches are really nice.”

Mullins just completed his first season with the Barons. He was previously associated with the Georgia Stars, a powerhouse summer baseball program, and in two years helped them to win 79 of 81 games and two national championships. He also had coaching stops at the University of North Florida and several high schools in Florida before arriving at Brewton-Parker.