Supreme talent: How this Mount Pulaski senior contributes all over the baseball field

Every good baseball team needs at least one utility player who can handle any assignment.

Mount Pulaski senior Landon Smith fits the bill. He can set up camp just about anywhere — whether that be the outfield, infield or the mound.

It’s not just his blistering offense, but also his contributions beyond the plate that make him such a priceless asset.

“I don’t think I have one sole position,” Smith said. “If coach (Joel Washko) needs me to play the outfield, I’ll play the outfield. If he needs me to play the infield, I’ll play the infield. If he needs me to throw seven innings, I’ll go out there and throw seven innings for him.”

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Giant leap

Smith and fellow senior Colt Selinger are the last remnants of the only Mount Pulaski baseball team to reach the state finals. The Hilltoppers wound up fourth place in 2021.

Smith contributed significantly as a freshman third baseman/pitcher and especially excelled the following year.

He set school records with a .551 batting average and .689 on-base percentage as a sophomore, ushering 38 hits, three home runs, 31 RBIs and 43 runs. That generated all-state accolades in Class 1A from the Illinois High School Baseball Coaches Association.

Smith posted those gaudy numbers after spending countless hours with his dad, Rob, and Mike Swingle in the offseason. He also turned to Washko Strength and Speed — owned by Joel’s brother, Jared — for agility and strength.

“I just had a different mindset going into everything,” Smith said. “I realized if I wanted to compete with everyone else, I was going to have to work as hard as everyone else, if not harder.”

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Sign of trust

Smith has had a bat in his hands for as long as he can remember.

He could’ve pursued other sports if he wanted to, but nothing else could match his love for baseball.

“It was just something that I liked,” said Smith, who later play at NJCAA Division I Southwestern Illinois College. “Dad would be in the backyard and he would throw me flyballs as high as he could and I would try to catch them. That’s my earliest memory of baseball.”

That innate knowledge of the game prompted Smith to pivot away from power this season.

“Last year and the year before, I saw myself more as a power hitter,” Smith said. “But we’ve picked up so many powerful hitters on the team, I’ve kind of settled into just being a base-hit guy, getting on base and letting those other hitters bring me around the bases.

“I kind of felt like being on base more than hitting a home run was definitely going to help out our team more, so I’ve kind of just focused on shortening up my swing, just trying to hit gap to gap.”

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It hasn't sapped his production at the plate.

Smith currently carries a third-best .408 batting average with 20 hits, two home runs, 15 RBIs and 28 runs through the first 19 games in the No. 3 hole.

“He’s seeing what the team needs, ‘I don’t have to hit the ball over the fence. I need to drive the ball through the gap,’” Wasko said. “And he’s done that really well. That’s a good sign of a great team player. That’s how I would sum up Landon: he’s willing to do whatever we need to be successful.”

Smith has also tossed 19.1 innings with a 2-1 record and 0.36 ERA. He has surrendered just one run so far this spring. Staying stoic is his biggest attribute as a pitcher, he said.

“If something doesn’t go my way, just let it roll off my shoulders and move on to the next guy,” Smith said. “I have a great defense and I know if I can focus on the batter and not worry about the runner, my defense will back me up.”

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Smith contributes to a strong rotation that also includes Chance Payne (6-0), Eric Cooper (4-0), Luke Martin (3-0) and cousin Liam Smith (2-0). Payne not only has a 0.69 ERA with a team-high 65 strikeouts in 30.2 innings but also a .491 batting average with 26 hits and 26 RBIs.

“Pretty much almost every batter during a game I’ll look over at Chance or Chance will look over at me and I’ll tell him, ‘Hey, this batter was late last time, so start him with a high fastball,’” Smith said. “Then working in the offseason just throwing bullpens, we’ll tell each other different grips to use ... just mechanic-wise always critiquing each other.”

That camaraderie even stretches down to the dugout, Washko said. In the 6-5 nonconference win over Southeast on Friday, April 19, the Hilltoppers (18-1) rallied with five runs in the final two frames with a blend of timely hitting, good pitching and positive energy from the bench.

That carried over to Thursday. Martin launched the go-ahead 2-RBI home run in the ninth inning to notch a 3-1 nonconference win over Springfield High.

“I feel like we have guys who have each other’s backs,” Washko said. “You can’t reach the ceiling of where you can go without that. Everybody has an important job.”

It’s why Smith said there isn’t much else coaching that he needs to do — as young as this team may be.

“They know what to do,” Smith said. “They’ve been here before. They like to win and they want to win.”

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Landon Smith puts team first for Mount Pulaski baseball