Sports

Brown delivers

• One can credit many players who’ve contributed to Deerfield’s 24-1 season en route to the GISA Class AAA state title series, but senior catcher Culin Brown’s impact is more far reaching than most.

Derek Barichello

Ask anyone on Deerfield-Windsor’s baseball squad, and they’ll tell you: Culin Brown is basically the ideal teammate.

For starters, the senior catcher is arguably one of the primary reasons the Knights are 24-1 this season and heading to Friday’s Class AAA state title game against Tattnall Square, thanks in part to his sub-1.9 second throw to second base, which has shut down most opponent’s running games all year.

Looking beyond his cannon for an arm, he is also one of the team’s best hitters in the clutch, batting .385 in the playoffs with a .636 on-base percentage in the

No. 3 spot. His biggest hit, however, came against George Walton in Game 1 of the second round of the GISA AAA state playoffs, when he drove home the game-winning run to help DWS advance.

But what most people might not know is what goes on behind-the-scenes when it relates to Brown and his Deerfield teammates.

After all, that’s where he makes his greatest impact.

“Him and (senior Patrick) Golden keep things stirred up. If you don’t pay attention, they’ll play a trick on you,” Deerfield coach Rod Murray said during practice Wednesday. “You can’t be wound up all the time. You need players who will shake things up (like Culin).”

But when Brown crouches down behind the plate, all the jokes go out the window as he takes charge as field general.

“It’s rewarding to be the catcher because you get to do all those little things,” Brown said. “Everyone watches the mound the whole game. Nobody sees the work you do back there. You can turn balls into strikes by framing, stuff like that. A good catcher can make a bad pitcher look good and a bad catcher can make a good pitcher look bad.”

It’s Brown’s combination of team leadership and camaraderie, along with his pure baseball talent, that is one of the key reasons the Knights will be playing for their first state championship since 2003 starting with Game 1 on Friday at 4 p.m. and concluding Saturday with Game 2 at 1 p.m. at DWS. (Game 3, if necessary, will be immediately after).

Want more proof of Brown’s impact? Just ask Knights ace Justin Lott.

The senior 6-foot-4 hurler threw a no-hitter last week against George Walton with Brown calling the pitches every step of the way.

“He’s a great guy to have on your team,” probable Game 1 starter Lott said of Brown, who he also calls “his best friend.” “(Culin and I) have a great pitcher-catcher relationship."

Brown said he and Lott’s close-knit bond this season goes beyond just finding a comfort level with one another, and now the duo simply click without even trying.

“We’re so close that we know what each other is thinking and we trust each other. I’ve never been as successful as I have been with him. He never questions a pitch I call,” Brown said. "Justin gets in the zone. He’s just throwing, he’s not even thinking. But that’s the way it should be, he shouldn’t have to think. He needs to pitch, I’ll do the thinking.”

Not only does Brown take charge of calling pitches, but whenever something goes wrong, he’s the first one to crack a joke or play a prank to keep the team’s mood light.

Brown can be so animated at times that even Murray admits that occasionally he’ll have to settle his senior star down, making sure he doesn’t do anything out of bounds or give other teams “bulletin-board material,” as the DWS coach calls it.

Still, with a state championship bid on the line for the first time in five years, Brown has been doing his best to keep the team loose during this week’s final practices.

“I think everyone is a little wired and anxious right now,” Brown said. "This is the most important time for me to be myself and crack jokes."

Brown, who already signed a scholarship with Southern Union earlier this season, knows being the catcher and team comedian is an unsung role, but he doesn’t mind.

“It goes with the job,” Brown said. “After the game, the pitcher gets all the credit but it doesn’t bother me because the pitcher comes back and gives all the credit to me.”

Of course, Brown knew when he started playing the position in eighth grade, anonymity came with the territory.

Going into that year, Deerfield needed a catcher. So Brown, already a strong hitter, took up the position in an effort to crack the lineup.

And now he has taken the catcher’s role and made it his own — all while cracking jokes along the way.

“It can get brutal back there sometimes,” Brown said. “During catching drills or catching straight through practice, sometimes it’s a struggle. (But) I feel like this is the only real game that I love. I enjoy playing no matter how good or bad it gets.”

How Brown’s final season ends after Saturday remains to be seen, but thanks to DWS’ comedic catcher, he’s made things pretty good for Deerfield up to this point.

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