Drive helps Knights' Rice beat setbacks

It had all come down to a drag bunt.

Jeff Rice always wanted to play college baseball, a proposition that seemed like it was slipping away when he twice shredded his knee before he turned 18. But in a late-season game against Josey, the Evans senior had noticed Mercer assistant coach Tom Boeth.

Boeth had mentioned to an Evans coach he wanted to time how long it took Rice to sprint to first base.

Next time up, Rice peered down the third-base line to identify the bunt sign, ran his right hand up the bat and knocked a bunt down the first-base line. Josey couldn't even make a play on the ball.

"It was probably the best bunt I had ever (put down)," he said. "And about the fastest I had ever run to first (base)."

Rice's path back from injury didn't end with that perfect bunt, and he ended up earning that baseball scholarship to Mercer. But it's one of many moments he will remember during a season in which Evans advanced to the state quarterfinals. Rice hit .424 with 33 RBI and is The Augusta Chronicle Georgia Baseball Player of the Year.

(Rice) "was very solid on defense and just the focal point of their team, really," said Westside coach Gerald Barnes, Georgia's all-time winningest coach. "He didn't play where it was cocky, he just did a good, solid job. I like him as a player."

Jeana Rice worked in the billing office of orthopedic surgeon Dr. Robert Brand for 10 years. She knew where to take her son when he tore his ACL as a sophomore and when he shredded that same knee again a year later. She also learned the nuances of recovery.

"We knew what kind of patients didn't get results," she said.

Dr. Brand, and physical therapists, gave them a list of exercises that would aid recovery. Jeana Rice would often sit by her son's bed and check off each exercise. He needed the motivation, often wondering if he could skip one of the three-times-a-day sessions.

The pain soon subsided. Rice gave up his senior year of football, but he wore his jersey on the sideline and helped coaches identify defensive coverages. He thought of himself as a kind of student coach.

Every time we went to the doctor, he asked if he was healthy enough to begin something new: ready to run, ready to resume his hitting or ready to resume what is generally the most dreaded weight-training drill, the squat press.

"Jeffrey has a lot of drive," Jeana Rice said. "He was going to bust his tail to have a stellar senior season."

Rice remained determined, even when his last season didn't begin so swell. He dropped to seventh in the batting order before a midseason game against Harlem rejuvenated his spirits. He went 3-for-3 hitting in the No. 2 hole that day and remained there for the rest of the season. Evans won 15 of its final 18 games.

"He never used injuries as an excuse," Evans coach Ricky Beale said.

Rice remembered being surprised when the Mercer assistant showed up at that April 20 game against Josey. But he would do whatever was asked, like laying down that bunt on the first pitch. After school one day, he got a call from Beale telling him Mercer wanted him to visit the school. One of the first things he asked them on his visit was the bunt.

"I had to laugh about it," he said. "After everything that happened, I was like 'Did you like my bunt?' ... I didn't know how recruiting worked. But I found out then."

Reach Matt Middleton at (706) 823-3425 or matt.middleton@augustachronicle.com.