Collin Brinker, Zach Lavy and Justin Murphy were sent out on the dirt of North Callaway’s baseball field in Auxvasse one after another on Friday.

This was certainly the case a decade ago when the three were anchors on the mound for one of the best periods in North Callaway baseball history. The trio were reunited following North Callaway’s 10-0 five-inning victory against Clopton to be honored as the latest inductees in the school’s Hall of Fame.

Current athletic director and football coach Kevin O’Neal said it was a matter of time to see all three of his former players be inducted. O’Neal coached the Thunderbirds when the three spent three varsity seasons together, which is also when they kept rewriting the record books to the current 20 wins in 2012.

“That group of three guys led our baseball program into success,” O’Neal said. “Every year they were there, they were excellent baseball players, excellent leaders and just great young men too. They took charge as freshmen on the team, and each year, our team progressively got better. We broke the record for wins their sophomore year, broke that record again their junior year and then we set the current record their senior year.”

For current assistant coach Zach Lavy, being in the Thunderbird dugout meant and still means much to him. After Lavy graduated, the Columbia resident became an assistant to coach O’Neal and has been there as much as possible for his brother, Zeth Lavy, was hired to lead the program.

“I love being around the guys, love coaching and I pride myself on doing things the right way,” Lavy said. “I want to teach these guys how to do it the right way. Now with my brother as the head coach, it’s pretty much a no-brainer that I’m going to come and help out as much as I can.”

While assisting the North Callaway program, Lavy continued to accomplish many things at the college and independent level, hitting .296 and driving in 31 RBI in 47 games at Jefferson College before filling the scorebook at the University of Missouri. In his senior season at Mizzou, Lavy led the team with a .332 average, 71 hits, 18 doubles, eight triples, eight home runs, 54 RBI, 129 total bases, a .603 slugging percentage, 44 runs, 34 extra-base hits and 11 hit-by-pitches to be a semifinalist for the Gregg Olson Award, which is given to college baseball’s top breakout player.

In independent ball, Lavy played for the Gateway Grizzlies and River City Rascals, totaling 32 home runs and 114 RBI in 222 career games, and was part of River City’s Frontier League championship team in 2018.

Lavy’s high school career was packed with accolades and impressive numbers as well as he was an all-conference and all-district player in baseball and basketball — career 9.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.1 assists — along with being named an all-state baseball player twice. He finished his Thunderbird career with a .422 average, 104 runs, 47 extra-base hits and 10 home runs while pitching to a career 1.83 ERA along with 107 strikeouts in 91 innings. Lavy owns many school records including a .529 season batting average, a .422 career batting average, five season home runs, 39 season RBI, 77 career RBI, 18 season extra-base hits and 30 career extra-base hits.

“Growing up, watching my brothers play and starting at an early age, I always wanted to be a T-Bird and be on the varsity squad,” Lavy said. “I won a lot of games, especially on the baseball side. So it’s not only good to give back in being part of the coaching staff but also be honored with the Hall of Fame.”

Of course, Lavy wouldn’t have won all of those games in a North Callaway uniform without his teammates on the diamond. He called himself, Brinker and Murphy a “three-headed monster” that were able to win by wide margins various times due to the sheer amount of talent.

Lavy was a force when on the mound, but he was confident in the team’s chances of winning whenever Brinker and Murphy were toeing the rubber. He said the Thunderbirds were the best team in their conference — the Mid-MO Conference at the time — and proved it with back-to-back-to-back conference titles from 2010-12.

“Those guys — Collin and Justin — on the mound were unstoppable,” Lavy said. “It was pretty easy to play defense behind them and certainly fun to run up the score to some of those conference teams.”

Brinker feels like the Hall of Fame honor was made even more special by being able to stand next to Lavy and Murphy while holding their plaques. 

“It’s an incredible honor that I never expected,” Brinker said. “I feel truly blessed to have the opportunity to play here and much less play with the guys and go in with the guys I played with for multiple years.”

Brinker said the trio’s careers were intertwined before high school as he remembers playing with Lavy and Murphy when he was 9-10 years old. 

When he was alone atop the mound, Brinker was unhittable as a Thunderbird as he owns a career 1.78 ERA, 21 wins, 247 strikeouts, 56 walks and batting average against of .181 in 165 innings, going even lower his senior season with a 0.90 ERA with 102 strikeouts in 62 innings. As a hitter, he owns a .360 average, 63 RBI and 51 runs while only striking out nine times in 211 at-bats.

After a high school career that earned Brinker all-conference, all-district and two all-state baseball honors, he signed with William Woods University in Fulton before transferring crosstown to Westminster College, leaving his mark on that program as well. 

As a Blue Jay, Brinker still stands as the school record holder with 100 innings in a season, and ranks fourth in school history with 82 strikeouts in a season, second with nine wins in a season, fourth with a 2.83 career ERA, fourth with 155 career strikeouts and third with six career saves. Brinker was named as the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference pitcher of the year, a MVP of the SLIAC tournament and was named to the SLIAC all-decade team.

Brinker said he played at Westminster because he wanted to make sure he made it on the field as his best memories, especially in his days as a Thunderbird, happened on the field with some great teammates.

“The biggest memories were just the relationships that were built and the fun times and bonding through competition,” Brinker said. “We won a lot of games together, had a lot of success and was really a fun time.”

Murphy said being inducted into any Hall of Fame is significant but being part of North Callaway’s has much personal significance. He said he has played baseball his entire life, eventually going on to pitch for Mineral Area College and Southeast Missouri State in college and for the Gateway Grizzlies in independent ball.

Returning to the place where Murphy’s competitive career started in Auxvasse is awesome, he said, as it is also the place where his life started.

“To go into the Hall of Fame with (Lavy and Brinker) for baseball is pretty special just because, one, it is my hometown, and two, I’ve been playing ball with these guys forever. I played on this field for a long time.”

Murphy was a class behind Lavy and Brinker as he graduated in 2013 and made the most of that senior season by setting school single-season records of 115 strikeouts and a 0.51 ERA. His Thunderbird career was far from wasted as well as Murphy was an all-conference and all-district player in basketball — career 11.9 points, 39 percent shooting and 35 percent on 3-pointers — and baseball and made the all-state baseball team once. When it comes to career numbers, Murphy owns a 1.57 ERA, 14 wins, 177 strikeouts, 38 walks and a .177 batting average against in 133 innings pitched and finished with a .343 average, 72 runs, 62 RBI in 242 at-bats.

In Murphy’s first year out of high school, he pitched to a 3.95 ERA at Mineral Area before accumulating a team-high 68 innings as a sophomore, averaging 11.25 strikeouts per game. That success translated to his junior year at Southeast Missouri State as Murphy finished with a 2.97 ERA and five saves in 27 appearances and then led the Redhawks with 95 innings pitched in his senior season when he shouldered more starting duties.

While Murphy recalls several individual accomplishments, like throwing a no-hitter against Community R-6, but doing it on the same team as his fellow inductees, and especially friends, made the experience even more memorable.

“It was all pretty special, but sharing the field with all those guys was one of the best memories I have,” Murphy said. “It’s an honor to be recognized by your community, your coaching staff and old teammates.”

Seeing O’Neal’s former three standout pitchers going down a handshake line of the current Thunderbird team was reminiscent of the many handshake lines North Callaway participated in after many victories. Many positive feelings were felt and emotions shown as O’Neal embraced each of his players before they all stood together around home plate.

“Collin said this when I was talking to him earlier,” O’Neal said. “Those years, it didn’t make a difference what ballfield we went to, we knew that we were going to compete. We knew most of the time we were going to win just because those guys were on the mound and had that confidence, and it poured into the rest of the team.”