A renewed dedication in the offseason led to an outstanding year for Circleville’s Trent Smith as he was named the winner of the Don Rowland Award as Pickaway County’s most outstanding senior baseball player.
Smith was a leader on the mound and at the plate as the Tigers won a Division III district title and advanced to the Elite Eight.
“I don’t think I could have asked for a better senior season. Our success in just the team that we had, and everybody really came together and did their part,” Smith said. “It wasn’t really a one man show any of the time, it was the whole team.”
Smith had an 8-2 record as a starting pitcher and hit for a .433 average.
“His ability to impact the game was in every phase,” coach Brian Bigam said. “I mean, he was great with the glove defensively at shortstop when he wasn’t pitching. He competed his rear end off on the mound for us. Any time he was on the mound — myself, the guys — we all felt like we were going to win the game with the things he could do there and then offensively, as well.
“He set two school records this year for hits in a season and runs in the season. So, I mean, he did it all this year for us.”
Smith had 52 hits and scored 45 times.
“I worked really hard in the off-season to get better at hitting,” Smith said. “It wasn’t that great the past couple years, but this year, I just tried to hit the ball hard and put it in play and it worked out.”
“I think the most impressive thing about this year, and this isn’t a knock on Trent, Trent will be the first person to tell you that his junior year was probably not what he was picturing,” Bigam said. “He pitched pretty well last year, but defensively and offensively, it probably did not go how he envisioned his junior year to go. So, to me, that’s what I’m most proud of, because baseball’s a tough game, and it can eat you up mentally, big time. He’s stuck with it, he kept working on his craft, was solid for us at short and had a much, much better season offensively for us out of the two-hole.”
In the field, he had 62 assists and 25 putouts while being a part of seven double plays.
“I don’t think you could probably have much more of a perfect senior year if you tried to script one, and that’s a testament to Trent and the work that he put in, not just this off season, but throughout,” Bigam said. “Since he was a little kid, he’s always loved the game of baseball and he’s always worked at the game of baseball.”
Smith struck out 64 while issuing only 15 walks and he had a 2.333 earned run average.
“I had great success throwing strikes,” Smith said. “I think if you throw strikes in high school, you’re going to have great success and good defense behind you helps a lot, too.”
A bit soft-spoken, Smith was a leader with his actions.
“I joke with him all the time — he’s not the most vocal person, but he’s vocal on the field when he needs to be,” Bigam said. “With him being a three-year starter, Austin (Gray) was a four-year starter for us, and Drew Thornsley, about three and a half years for us — when you have three guys that have been around me that long and know what I expect, it makes life much easier as a coach, because they let the younger kids know how it’s supposed to be.
“The less of that I have to do, the more successful we’re going to be. We always talk about a player led team is going to be much more successful than a coach led team.”
Smith will be heading down US 23 for college at Shawnee State in Portsmouth. He plans on studying exercise science and physical therapy and will be pitching for the Bears.
“With myself and Coach (Anthony Vagnier) and Coach (Austin) Gray, I feel like we’ve got good baseball backgrounds to help these guys get to the next level,” Bigam said. “You hope that they can take things from you, that they’ve learned from you, and then it’s just an exciting time in general for them to go experience that. As much as I love high school sports, college sports, it’s so much fun.
“It’s just a different level, and it’s fun to get to see Trent and others get to go and do that with their baseball careers.”
• The Don Rowland Award was established by an independent committee in 2000 to recognize Pickaway County’s most outstanding senior baseball player and was presented annually until 2013. The Sporting Pumpkin was able to resurrect the award in 2023 to continue to recognize deserving local athletes.
Don Rowland Award winners include:
2000 — Chris Robinson (Circleville), 2001 — Steve Overholser (Teays Valley), 2002 — Trey Fausnaugh (Westfall), 2003 — Daniel Utts (Circleville), 2004 — Mike Scherer (Circleville), 2005 — Lee Fausnaugh (Westfall), 2006 — Joe Morris (Westfall), 2007 — Greg Mullens (Teays Valley), 2008 — Andrew Cox (Teays Valley), 2009 — Jake Vinkovich (Circleville), 2010 — Eddie Strawser (Circleville), 2011 — Zach Wolfe (Westfall), 2012 — Anthony Vagnier (Logan Elm), 2013 — Alek Stonerock (Westfall), 2014-22 — No winner selected, 2023 — Matt Farmer (Teays Valley), 2024 — Bryce Wickline (Westfall), 2025 — Trent Smith (Circleville).