TELEGRAM ALL-AREA BASEBALL: Harrison shakes off status, settles in as a dominant force

Rocky Mount High’s David Harrison is the 2016 All-Area Baseball Pitcher of the Year.
©Telegram photo / Alan Campbell

Rocky Mount High’s David Harrison is the 2016 All-Area Baseball Pitcher of the Year.
©Telegram photo / Alan Campbell

Rocky Mount High’s David Harrison is the 2016 All-Area Baseball Pitcher of the Year.
©Telegram photo / Alan Campbell

Roughly a decade ago, William Harrison dropped off his son David for the first day of baseball practice.

The youngster was just 7 years old, and when William Harrison talked to the coach, he told him that it was David’s first time playing baseball.

David was so new to the sport that the Harrisons had just purchased him a glove prior to arriving at practice.

So it was definitely a shock when William Harrison came back to practice to pick up David that the younger Harrison was so full of excitement.

“Dad, I’m pitching tomorrow,” David said.

When the elder Harrison, a basketball coach, asked his son how that came to be, David’s answer was simple.

“They had us try different positions, and I just did what the coach told me to do,” said David, who went on to strike out six of the first seven batters he ever faced.

A decade later, not much has changed. David Harrison is still pitching, striking out batters and following the advice of coaches. The Rocky Mount High junior is the Telegram’s 2016 All-Area Baseball Pitcher of the Year.

Harrison was by far the most dominant pitcher in the Big East this season.

During a spring where there was a three-way tie for the conference championship, Harrison threw three shutouts in league play, including 1-0 victories against Wilson Fike and Wilson Hunt. He also helped beat Big East co-champ Northern Nash, 2-0.

“They were well-pitched games in dominating fashion,” Gryphons coach Pat Smith said. “I felt like when he was pitching, we could play with or beat anybody. That’s not to speak bad of anyone else we had pitching for us, but that’s the way it was.”

Harrison, a junior finished with 88 strikeouts in 63 innings and showed why he committed to N.C. State prior to the season.

If Harrison could knock one thing about his season, it would be his first few starts.

He was “pretty good” in Smith’s opinion, but the left-handed pitcher absorbed some self-inflicted pressure that only a selected few feel.

The weight of being a recent Division I commitment was carrying over to the mound, where he often was trying too hard.

“To me it wasn’t a big deal, but for other kids it was,” Harrison said.

Stuck in a bit of a rut, Harrison talked to assistant Hank Jones who told him to simply “go out and throw the ball.”

He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning of an Easter tournament baseball game, and from there, his season took flight.

Whether it was Jones’ advice, adjusting to how Smith wanted him to know why he was throwing a pitch, or relying on his father’s words that he was good enough, Harrison bottled all of it behind an upper-80s fastball and an ever-developing changeup.

“I just went out on my starts and got focused to go do my job,” said Harrison, who also had early offers from East Carolina and North Carolina.

Smith said Harrison is polite and ends exchanges with either “yes sir” or “no sir.”

If there is a conditioning drill in practice, Harrison doesn’t tell others he is going to finish first.

He just does it.

“I don’t like anything but first place,” Harrison said. “If it’s not first place, I don’t like it.”

Harrison is a student of those near and far. He admires L.A. Dodgers Cy Young pitcher Clayton Kershaw. He knows the names of former Gryphons Brian Goodwin and Benton Moss, who both currently are in the minor leagues.

A left-hander who is still developing his velocity and the speed of his curveball is a valuable asset.

He might one day add his name to the list of next-level athletes.

“I think about it almost every day,” Harrison said.