Valley ready to make most of senior year

Brett Valley is determined to make his last year of high school baseball his best, and through six Sierra League contests he's succeeded.

Valley, a three-year varsity player, is a major factor why the Senators are off to a 9-1 start and share the Sierra League top spot with arch-rival Douglas at 5-1.

The senior switch-hitter has been a lead-off hitter extraordinaire, posting a .555 average with eight runs and five RBIs. He is tied for the team lead in runs and hits and leads the team in average.

In short, he has been a great table-setter for the Senators.

It takes a special player to be a lead-off hitter. He has to be the consummate team player; someone willing to put his numbers aside for the good of the team. He has to possess a lot of skills " have a good eye at the plate, be able to bunt, use the whole field, hit for a decent average and have the ability to steal bases.

"Brett really works hard," Carson coach Cody Farnworth said. "He bunts at will and has a little pop up the middle. He's so good at positioning (the bunt) as far as getting it past the pitcher. He's not afraid to wear it (get hit by a pitch), either. He'll do whatever he can to get on base.

"He understands the game, and he understands what he has to do to get better."

Farnworth, who took over for Steve Cook this year, has had some influence with all the Senators when it comes to hitting, according to Valley.

"The biggest difference between this year and last year is I'm hitting to the opposite field more," Valley said. "I've learned to lay off the first pitch; changed things up a bit. Cody likes us to see a lot of pitches; wear down the pitcher and see what he has. As a lead-off hitter you want to check out the pitcher and see what he has so you can help out your teammates.

"To get off to a fast start feels great. I'm not going to change anything with my swing. I'm going to keep doing what I've been doing."

Another thing that has helped Valley is his ability to hit from both sides of the plate, though he hits left-handed more than right-handed because of the lack of left-handed pitchers at the high school level.

"I've been doing it my whole life," Valley said. "My dad (John, former Carson assistant coach) said it would be an advantage.

"I have more power right-handed, but I'm a better contact hitter left-handed. Sometimes teams played me the opposite way when I hit left-handed and I would try to pull the ball more when I saw that. I look at how they are playing me (every time up). There are times I try to hit the 5-6 hole (between short and third) or the 3-4 hole (between first and second)."

Valley is not a rah-rah type of player. He just goes about his business. He is team first and that was never more apparent than this year when he was asked to move to the outfield after starting at second base the previous year.

"When I told him what I wanted to do, he said he would play anywhere to help the team. We can still go back to him in the infield. He had played outfield a little last summer."

Actually, Valley played outfield as a freshman on the JV squad, and then moved to second base when he started playing for Cook.

"My dad taught me to play a lot of different positions," Valley said. "I like the outfield, and if they need me to play the outfield, I'll play there. It's not a big deal for me.

"It's different than second base. At second, you are thinking what you will do if the ball is hit this way or the ball is that way. In the outfield, you are thinking about backing up the throws and where to go with the ball if it comes to you."

There's a good and a bad to that. In the infield, a player is way too busy on every pitch to think about anything else. In the outfield, plays are not as often, and Valley admits he finds himself thinking about hitting a lot more than before.

Valley said he owes a lot of his progress to his dad, who was an assistant under Cook, but decided to be a spectator this season.

"He's been a big influence," the younger Valley admitted. "If I ever wanted to take groundballs or hit, he would gladly take me out. He'd throw batting practice to me. Even though he's not coaching, he's at the games. He'll give me signs on what I'm doing wrong (at the plate).

"He looks for good things, 'like you did this well in your first at-bat'. He does his best to try and help me."

Valley continually works at honing his skills with the hope of playing junior college baseball somewhere next season. The leading contender for his services appears to be Treasure Valley College, located in Oregon. Farnworth spent a redshirt year at Treasure Valley.

"He called the coach, and they seem to like me," Valley said. "It's a good program. I went up there and saw the campus."

Farnworth sees Valley being used the same way he is now, both in the outfield and second base to take advantage of his speed.