BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Gate City's Hughes a double threat

Wes Hughes is a slugger.

A speedster.

An ace.

A leader.

And, most of all, an unabashed, unrepentant, ear-to-ear grinning goof.

“He loves playing baseball,” said Gate City teammate Dusty Clark. “And it shows.”

Hughes, the Bristol Herald Courier’s Player of the Year, packs a bevy of talents into his lithe frame, leading the 2010 Blue Devils to the Virginia Group A state semifinals with a perfect record on the mound and a dynamite swing at the dish that blasted a Supreme Court bench worth of balls over the fence.

But what separates Hughes from his elite brethren isn’t his skills, his savvy or even his stats.

Instead it’s something as simple as a smile.

Walking the talk

Catchers?

Sure.

First basemen?

Notorious.

But a chatterbox pitcher? A babblemouth big-bopper?

Good luck finding those in any lineup lacking the name Wes Hughes.

“I’m so talkative and stuff,” Hughes said, sounding more Valley girl than country boy. “I talk on the mound all the time. I talk to the players out in the field. I give them encouragement all the time. I laugh all the time on the mound.”

Even so, Hughes is far from clueless when he takes the hill.

“He’s a lot more savvy and a lot more knowledgeable than most kids,” said Blue Devils coach Darren Reed. “He really understands the mental part of the game. Most kids throw. He pitches.”

Throughout his three years at Gate City, Hughes has called his own pitches, underscoring the trust his coaches have in him.

He has a four-pitch repertoire and is just as likely to flip over a curveball for a quick strike as he is to punch out a batter with an outside heater. But Hughes credits fun just as much as firepower for his success.

“I never get frustrated on the mound. Ever. That’s the worst thing you can do when you pitch,” he said.

Clark said the Blue Devils value having an ace that acts more like a joker.

“He’s a lot different than any other pitcher,” the Gate City third baseman said. “Most other pitchers will get in their own groove.”

For Hughes, it takes a team to tango.

“I hope people look up to me and have the same attitude as me,” he said. “If you have an easy-going attitude I think you get rewarded for it.”

Child’s play

It’s always sunny in Gate City when Hughes is around, but that doesn’t mean that some moments on the baseball diamond aren’t more fun than others.

“My last year of Little League, when I was 12 years old, it hit me that I love the game,” Hughes said.

Not coincidentally, that was also the year that Hughes’ aluminum stick began hitting the ball with prodigious force.

He smacked his first regular-season home run and then, after being selected to the all-star team, proceeded to hit a dinger in each of the remaining half-dozen or so games.

So a lover of the long ball, eh?

Not so fast.

What’s the best way to fluster the unflappable Hughes?

Ask him to choose favorites on the field.

“I like hitting,” he started out confidently. “Hitting is my favorite thing to do.”

Pause.

“Pitching, I love pitching, too,” he added, now floundering for a definitive answer.

“It goes together,” he finished, giving up.

Forgive Hughes, though, as he’s not the only one who can’t decide if they’d rather have him on the mound or at the plate in a big moment.

“You really can’t pinpoint one,” Clark said. “He’s an outstanding baseball player.”

While 2010 represented a breakout year for Hughes, he’s no stranger to the fans in Scott County.

A Hiltons, Va., native who grew up around Gate City baseball, Hughes was the kid in the bleachers staring wide-eyed at the Blue Devil stars long before he became one.

When Little League practice wasn’t enough – and it rarely was – Hughes would retreat to his backyard and imagine himself performing just the sort of feats he now ticks off on a regular basis for the Blue Devils.

“I had a little fence up there, I used to hit and see if I could get a home run when I was little,” he said. “It’s hard to imagine I could barely hit one over there.”

Dream on

Not even in those backyard fantasies, though, could Hughes have conjured up a day like he had on May 21 in Bristol against rival Virginia High.

Two months after his two-homer, four-hit, seven-RBI performance coupled with a shutout on the mound in a 15-0 win over the Bearcats, Hughes still uses the same words he uttered on the field after the victory to describe his indescribable brilliance on that night.

“That was my dream game,” he said.

But the passage of time hasn’t stopped Hughes from having to pinch himself occasionally when reflecting on the game of his career.

“I look at myself and I’m like, ‘I really did that. I can’t believe I did that,’ ” he said.

The rest of Gate City’s season, though, left Hughes with plenty of reasons to have motivation left for his senior campaign.

Three days after Hughes’ monster night and Gate City’s blowout win, the Bearcats topped the Blue Devils in a one-game playoff for the Clinch Mountain District regular-season title. Virginia High then proceeded to beat Gate City again for the district-tournament championship and in the Region D finals.

Baseball fans in the area were dreaming of a final Virginia High/Gate City showdown for the state championship when both teams reached the Group A semifinals after Hughes pitched Gate City past Glenvar in the quarterfinals.

“He delivered in that game,” Reed said.

But with Hughes’ arm being saved for the possibility of a state final, the Blue Devils were unable to get past Rappahannock in the semis despite an early 4-0 lead, falling 9-8 to the eventual state champs.

“It was one of them rockin’, teeter-totter games,” Hughes said, for once looking forlorn.

That heartbreaking sequence of events followed a 10-4 loss to Chatham in the state finals during Hughes’ sophomore season.

It didn’t take long, however, for Hughes to spin even those back-to-back disappointments into a positive.

“That just gives me something to look forward to and have to work harder for the next year,” he said.

So call him the Sunny Slugger, the Pleasant Pitcher, the Jocular Jock, the Merry MVP or even just the Humorous Hughes, but this is one ballplayer who won’t rest until he’s the Cheerful Champ.

nhubbard@bristolnews.com | Twitter: @Hubbard_BHCSprt | (276) 645-2543