Beechwood baseball stars Sawyer Carlisle and Brooks Becker and coach Kevin Gray are doing what they do best after winning the 9th Region championship: talking shop. The Tigers have just wrapped up practice, remaining laser-focused on their state championship goal. It has been a whirlwind season, and the seniors are glad to relax.
“Love talking about baseball,” Becker said. “Baseball’s my life.”
He’s not exaggerating. The .348-hitting shortstop grew up in a baseball family. His father played rookie ball in the minor leagues. His brothers played collegiately. One has reached Double-A and another is playing professionally this summer. Becker is the embodiment of a baseball guy. That combined with his immense skills is a big reason why he is the Tigers’ cleanup hitter on the way to the Morehead State baseball program.
“He’s just completely all about baseball,” said Carlisle, a brainiac who’s heading to MIT to play ball. “I’ve known him and a lot of the guys on the team for a long time. We’ve been teammates for six years.”
It’s a special bond for the 10 seniors in their final high school go-around. They continually work at every aspect of the game and play together as one. They hang out together away from the field and yuck it up to stay loose.
“It’s more than a friendship, we’re like brothers,” said Becker.
It’s not as though Becker needs more siblings. He and his band of biological brothers have been running around the Becker household for years and playing baseball virtually everywhere, even in the house. His Beechwood baseball brothers have similar stories.
Together, the Beechwood players know their baseball. Being so close to Cincinnati, they know their Reds. They know who Adam Dunn is even though Dunn hasn’t hit a major league home run since 2014. They know who Barry Larkin is, of course.
Many of the Beechwood players have actually met power-hitting George Foster through the David Iery Foundation Tournament at their home field. They met him last year. The foundation has strong structural ties to the Reds organization, which allows Beechwood to bring in former “Big Red Machine” and Cincinnati Reds legends to interact with their players and fans.
Beechwood’s baseball program regularly participates in the Skyline Chili Reds Futures High School Showcase, an event heavily sponsored and promoted by the Reds. Because of this partnership, Beechwood has been selected multiple times to play official regular season high school games directly on the field at the Reds’ home stadium for “Big League Weekend” events.
When Beechwood played West Clermont and won 4-1 at the Doc Morris Invitational in April, players shook hands with West Clermont’s head coach Dave Collins, a speedy former Red who stepped down from the job June 2. This running-into-Reds thing is getting to be old hat for the Tigers, much to the delight of Becker, Carlisle and the boys. But it’s also getting a bit ridiculous.
Beechwood’s 8:30 p.m. opener Friday at the 2026 Baseball State Tournament presented by UK HealthCare is against West Jessamine. The Tigers are 32-9 after going 20-3 against the 9th Region. The 12th Region champion Colts (19-14) are coached by former Red Austin Kearns, Dunn’s sidekick in Cincinnati from 2002 to 2005.
“Yeah, we do see a lot of Reds,” coach Gray said. “It’s cool. It’s baseball and it’s part of what we do away from the field.”
However, it’s Beechwood that’s hoping opponents see red when they take on the state bracket at Legends Field in Lexington. The Tigers’ team colors are red and white.
“It’s not like we want to be super welcoming or anything. He’s just another coach,” Becker said of running into Kearns and his Colts. “We want to beat them and win state. Let’s go!”
Becker knows how to pump up the team. Carlisle is the steady center with his own brand of get-after-it. The rest of the team is pretty solid as the Tigers are batting .358 with a team ERA of 3.25.
There are .300, .400 and .500 hitters all over the place, led by Tyler Fryman’s .533, fellow junior Caleb Arrasmith’s .451 and Carlisle at .426. Fryman leads the team with 11 home runs, nine triples, 15 doubles and 51 RBI. Arrasmith, also heading to Morehead State, has four homers and Carlisle has three. Senior Hudson Edwards, heading to Transylvania, is batting .339. Junior Jackson Mando is hitting .338 and senior Bobby Meier is at .315.
On the mound, the Tigers feature Carlisle, who is 6-1 with a 2.78 ERA. They also have rolled out Arrasmith, 9-2 with a 1.96 ERA; Paul Stephenson, 5-0 with a 2.28 ERA; and Branton Stiles. Carter Moore with a 1.52 ERA, has been effective as a starter and reliever. Rubber arm Kayden Sautter leads the team in appearances with a 3.80 ERA. With just one start, Sautter ranks third on the staff in batters faced with 507.
With all that talent and more, coach Gray feels like he has a good game plan to successfully turn a cool local connection into high-stakes drama for the Friday night contest against West Jessamine.
The Colts are hitting .264 as a team. Their ERA is not bad at 3.62 but the Colts have a tendency to miss the strike zone, something coach Gray believes his patient hitters can capitalize on as they work the counts with their collective .462 on-base percentage.
Colts pitchers have walked 185 batters in 267 innings. Furthermore, the opportunistic Tigers have swiped 130 bases with a 94.6% success rate. Beechwood averages nearly nine runs per game, nearly four runs more than West Jessamine, which has scored in double figures just three times while barely getting hot with no more than three wins in a row at any time during the season.
“That’s exactly what we’ve talked about, and let’s get their starter out of the game and get into the bullpen with great at-bats,” coach Gray said. “But I’ll tell you what. I don’t worry about records. I don’t look at West Jessamine’s record. Their coach is a former Red so you’ve got to think they’re well-coached in the baseball stuff. Everybody thought Boyle County was coming out of the 12th and they beat them.”
The coach also doesn’t look ahead. Friday’s victor plays the Louisville Trinity-Bullitt East winner Saturday at 8:30 p.m. Trinity is 37-3 and ranked No. 1 in the Prep Baseball Kentucky Power 25. Beechwood is No. 11. The state semifinals and final are Friday June 12 and Saturday June 13 at Kentucky Proud Park.
“All I know is it’s a tough bracket,” Gray said. “But if we don’t play well Friday, we don’t play Saturday.”
For a team that grew up admiring the Reds, the objective under the lights at Legends Field is simple: forget the legends, beat the Colts, and ensure the only color left standing Friday night is Beechwood red.
