Mason Carroll’s value to the Community R-6 baseball program can be explained by statistics, but there is more to the all-state pitcher.

The graduating senior earned his second straight Class 1 all-state nod as a second-team pitcher in an announcement on June 10 from the Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association not long after being named the Central Activities Conference MVP and an all-district player this season. 

Head coach Joel Krato has coached Carroll through his high school career and is obviously impressed how effective he was on the mound this season. Carroll pitched to a 0.98 ERA and 0.828 WHIP and finished with an 8-2 record, 103 strikeouts, 44 hits, nine earned runs and nine walks in 64 innings. However, the ace pitcher is much beyond that.

“This past summer, we just came off our Final Four run and he’s a returning first-team all-stater and is going to be the senior guy for us,” Krato said. “Our first practice — we are doing stuff in July — and he is out there before I get there so he’s out there an hour and 15 minutes before practice starts and he’s out there picking weeds off the field all by himself. That’s what it’s like coaching a Mason Carroll.”

Krato said he didn’t ask Carroll to do that but rather Carroll is the type of kid that took the initiative to tackle action that benefitting the team as a whole. Carroll is always a kid that “does the right thing” and “leads by example,” Krato said, and it will be tough not having him in the future.

The Trojans do have kids with good character returning, Krato clarified, but Carroll’s intangibles were on the level of a Gavin Allen, who made the all-state team last season along with Carroll and Ayden Meranda. Allen signed to play in college for William Woods University and Meranda went to Culver-Stockton College, and now Carroll will be a college player himself when he goes to St. Louis Community College.

Krato said Carroll definitely is ready for the college level because, even though he was good when Krato saw him before his freshman year, Carroll has still improved. Carroll’s first-team all-state season a year ago included numbers such as a 1.19 ERA, a 10-2 record, and 123 strikeouts and nine walks in 82⅓ innings. He proved to be even more stingy this year.

“We made this adjustment with him late last year to just throw more fastballs,” Krato said. “I think early in his junior year we tried to throw too much offspeed and then hitters were able to be on time with it because it was slower. They’re late on the fastball so why are we throwing slower stuff like a changeup, curveball or slider?”

Carroll’s strikeout-to-walk ratio has been mind-boggling the past two years, Krato said, especially since he capped off his regular season with complete-game shutouts against two top 10 teams. Carroll struck out 12 and only one hit in each of his starts against Pilot Grove and Higbee. In his junior year, Krato said Carroll didn’t walk his first batter until his 37th inning. 

Krato pointed out that Carroll’s hitting was also sensational, including a .470 batting average, a .551 on-base percentage and an .833 slugging percentage along with four home runs, eight doubles, two triples and 25 RBI. Last year, Carroll owned a .338 average with 24 RBI, 22 hits, 12 runs, five doubles and four home runs. Krato said the difference in numbers shows how Carroll has grown stronger in such a short amount of time.

“He killed the weight room,” Krato said. “He was able to go longer into games, and he threw harder this year.”

It will be difficult to move on without Carroll and also the other seniors Krato said he will be losing. Krato said he thought Eli Johnson was deserving of an all-state spot as well after the season he had of a .477 average, a .570 on-base, a .692 slugging, 31 hits, 29 runs, 24 stolen bases out of 26 attempts, 20 doubles, 16 RBI, and eight walks compared to eight strikeouts.

“I thought we had two kids worthy,” Krato said. “I only nominate you if I think you’re worthy. He should’ve at least been an honorable mention.”