Scarbrough having fun at college baseball’s highest level
PHOTO COURTESY OF LIBERTY UNIVERSITY
Liberty’s Payton Scarbrough high-fives a teammate after scoring a run during one of the Flame’s game’s last season. The Maryville native hit .284 in his first season wearing a Division I uniform.
Maryville native Payton Scarbrough was just a kid who wanted to get better at the sport he loved most — baseball. Five years and three schools later, he’s grown into a man who still does.
Scarbrough is currently the starting catcher for the Liberty Flames, a Division I program in Lynchburg, Virginia. He is one of few athletes from Maryville to end up playing sports at an NCAA Division I level.
“I essentially grew up learning the Maryville way, and learning the Maryville winner’s mentality,” he said. “That’s just what you do. You win, you work your butt off, and it was just engrained in me for so long. That’s the only thing I know.”
Scarborough’s father, Tom coached his baseball teams growing up, and he was the baseball coach at Maryville High School staff, while serving as an assistant coach for the Spoofhounds football team. His mother, Shelby, was a teacher, and principal at the middle school.
He essentially had to choose between being at the middle school with his mom or at sports practice with his dad after school.
Naturally, he drifted towards the sports practices.
When he got to the high school level, he played well enough to earn all-district honors three times, All-Midland Empire Conference four times, and was a member of the Kanasas City Royals’ High School scout team his junior and senior season.
Scarbrough set a school record by hitting .529 in his junior season. He was selected to the Missouri Baseball Coaches Association All-State team his senior year.
Those accolades earned him a spot on the Missouri Western State roster for the 2012-2013 season.
He recorded 23 at-bats as a true freshman and hit .391 with nine hits, two of which were doubles.
After the 2013 season, he decided it was time for a change.
That Griffons team went 40-12 and 28-5 in conference play. They came up one step short of the NCAA Division II World Series. Twenty-four of the 38 players on the roster were upperclassmen.
“I wanted to leave to go get better,” he said. “There were a lot of older guys on my team and they were really, really good. I had a lot of improvements to make if I was ever going to be as good as them. The only way I knew how to do that was to play a lot. That’s what you can do in junior college.”
Couple that fact with the fact one of his aunts moved from Kansas City to Tulsa, Scarbrough followed suit and was panhandle-state bound. But before he got on the field with Eastern Oklahoma State College, he had to undergo a shoulder surgery due to wear and tear that eventually resulted in a torn labrum.
It cost him the 2013-14 season at the Wilburton, Oklahoma school.
Scarbrough still wishes he knew more about what caused his injury.
“I have no idea what caused it really,” he said. “It would answer a lot of questions I have personally. One day, we were playing and my arm just didn’t feel the same. It felt kind of weak. It was a pain that I had never had before. I just kind of ignored it and let it get worse and worse. There was one day when I couldn’t lift my arm above my head. I went and visited a doctor in Tulsa, and he said I had a torn labrum.”
During his one season with EOSC, he batted .383 and finished with 39 RBI to go with 42 runs scored.
It was good enough to get Liberty’s attention.
Scarbrough said the Flames just felt like the right fit.
“I essentially felt like I was being called here by the Lord and this was the place I needed to be,” he said.
During his first season with Liberty, he started 40 of the 44 games he played in. He finished with a .284 batting average, 40 hits, seven doubles, four home runs, 22 RBI, and 25 runs scored.
He said his welcome-to-Divison I baseball moment came in an intrasquad scrimmage.
“I think the pitcher was throwing 92 or 93 [miles per hour], and I took it right in the ribs. That felt a little bit different than a junior college hit by pitch.”
It wasn’t just the speed of the pitches coming at you in the batter’s box that let him know he was in a different realm.
Capability was at an all-time high.
“It’s different, and it’s different for a lot of different reasons, but the most glaring reason is everyone is better,” he said. “Everyone is the best player from their high school or junior college or summer team. It’s sink or swim. You’ve got to keep your head above water.”
Scarbrough will play his first game of his final season today when the Flames battle Virginia in a neutral-site game in Charleston, South Carolina.
While he may be competing at college baseball’s highest level, he also hasn’t forgotten that people are supposed to enjoy the game.
He is going to focus on getting even better and enjoying every minute in his final season.
“With it being such a long season, and being surrounded by so many younger guys, the main thing I want to focus on being positive and always enjoying it. That way, when the younger guys get to be older, they can show the new younger guys that this is supposed to be fun.
“At the end of the day, this is still baseball, and it’s still a game you grew up playing at an early age. You’re supposed to always have fun, no matter the circumstances. This is a great opportunity that not a lot of people get the chance to do.”
Scarbrough is one of nine seniors on a 40-man roster.
Scott Jackson, who is in his first year as the head coach program, has been impressed with what he’s seen out of Scarbrough so far this season.
“He certainly has a great relationship with his teammates,” Jackson said. “He has a lot of resolve and is a man that is very strong in his faith. He has an outlook on this game that not a lot of people have.”
It’s important to Scarbrough to remind people that teams that are more comfortable around each other and know how to have fun tend to see better results.
He recalled a three-game set with Coastal Carolina last season.
The Chanticleers swept the Flames and outscored them 46-9. Coastal went on to win the College World Series. Liberty almost stopped history from happening later in the year as they lost to Chanticleers 1-0 in the Big South Conference Tournament.
It capped a 31-28 season for the Flames.
“They came up here and handled us pretty good, but that wasn’t a loss where you aced all down and out,” he said. “Those were losses where you took notes on what they did and how they did it. They were great baseball players, no doubt about it, but the most significant thing about them was, they had fun and enjoyed being around each other. The baseball kind of almost came second because they were enjoying what they were doing so much. Winning took care of itself.”
While Scarbrough has gone on to bigger and better things, he still keeps his hometown close to his heart.
He never forgets where he comes from.
“I’m blessed I come from such a great town and a great community,” he said. “I just try and make them proud.”
