Meet the SJ-R's Small School Baseball Player of the Year for 2023: Kamryn Link
The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t have many positive outcomes. But Kamryn Link might not be the baseball player he is today without the extra downtime it forced upon the world.
Baseball was just another sport in a line of them for the Gillespie graduate. Heck, he even skipped his eighth-grade baseball season to focus on football.
But as a freshman looking for something to pass the days, weeks and months the world spent in lockdown, baseball offered Link a respite and a chance to get out of the house.
That focus on the sport turned into a passion, a chance to play baseball in college, an undefeated regular season for the Miners, two all-state awards and The State Journal-Register's Small School Baseball Player of the Year award.
"I didn’t really have much to do so me and my buddies would throw, get in the cage and start working hard,” Link said, “and then that summer I was playing really good and someone was like, ‘Hey, you have a good chance to play the game in college’ and I had never really thought about it.
“But once I thought about it, I thought I’d like to (continue playing after high school) and I think I can really make something out of this. My body did a lot of maturing over the last three years so that helped a lot but I’ve really been dedicated and been working hard and I’m really proud of what I’ve accomplished.”
Link wrapped up the 2023 season with a .532 batting average (59-for-111) with 42 RBIs, 43 runs scored, 12 doubles and five home runs. On the mound, he was 9-1 in 10 starts with a 1.03 ERA, 85 strikeouts against 22 walks in 61 1/3 innings pitched.
Gillespie was 29-0 in the regular season, won the Class 2A Piasa Southwestern Regional title and advanced to the sectional championship game for the first time since 2002 before a loss to Quincy Notre Dame ended the hopes for the Miners’ first undefeated regular season team.
“From the start of the year, we knew he was going to be our best player — our go-to guy — and he didn’t let us down,” Gillespie coach Jeremy Smith said.
Transition to a star
Link has been a sports nomad of sorts during his high school years. As a senior, he was a three-sport athlete — golf in the fall, basketball in the winter and baseball in the spring. For his first two years of high school, he was on the Miners’ football team.
At Johnson County Community College, in Overland Park, Kansas, he will trim that down to just baseball.
Smith said the 6-foot-3 Link is blessed with a mature body that points to a long baseball career but it was Link’s mental maturity that puts him in a unique category.
“His work ethic: nobody works harder than him,” Smith said. “He’s one of those kids who gets done practicing and goes home to hit on his own. He organized some Sunday activities … and kind of took the bull by the horns.”
Link said that’s been part of his process.
“Just go out, work hard and play my best every day,” Link said of his keys to success. “I trust my abilities and all the work I’ve put in so if I was going out and putting in my effort, I know I would play at a very high level and that would translate to my teammates and help them play good too.”
The Miners won the South Central Conference title with an undefeated 9-0 record. As the winning streak grew, Link and the rest of the team started to notice the attention they were gaining with increased media coverage and more fans at every game.
“My junior year, we didn’t get much of that,” Link said. “The players didn’t really realize it at first but one day we were kind of looking around at how many fans and people were there taking pictures and it was an amazing feeling to have the support from the people inside the community and outside of the community.”
Overcoming an early injury
An injury to a ligament in one of Link’s fingers put a sudden halt to his senior basketball season and continued to bother him into the baseball season, as well.
Not that it showed to the outside observer — especially when Link homered in the season opener against Alton Marquette.
“It may sound a little funny but the start of the year was really tough,” Link confessed. “I was coming off a hand injury in which I wasn’t able to do much for three months so I wasn’t really 100% coming into the year and I kind of struggled for the first month and then I kind of picked it up.
“Throughout the year, my swing never felt like it really clicked but I was up there competing and my body did what I needed it to do.”
Even though the season didn’t end the way Link wished, he’s still able to appreciate how special it was and said he will always share a bond with all of his teammates.
“Part of it didn’t even feel real,” Link said. “It was sort of a surreal feeling. I’m still trying to process everything that happened. It’s something we’ll talk about for a long time.”
Link is going to play baseball until he can’t, whether the end comes after college or hopefully after time in the professional ranks. Smith doesn’t see why Link shouldn’t reach for the stars.
“I think the sky is the limit with him,” Smith said. “He’s got everything people are looking for: he’s big, put together, he’s got a good eye, hits for power and hits for average and he’s an above-average outfielder.”
Contact Ryan Mahan: 788-1546, ryan.mahan@sj-r.com, Twitter.com/RyanMahanSJR.
This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Player of the Year Link led Miners to best finish in generation
