Photo by Kyle Parmley.
Vestavia’s Colton Lewis bats during a game against Hoover on March 12. Whether Lewis is pitching or playing first base, he’s a key bat in the middle of the Rebels’ lineup.
Colton Lewis is a pretty simple guy.
The Vestavia Hills High School senior more or less lives on the diamond, whether he’s playing with his high school baseball team, his travel team or he’s taking batting practice from his grandfather.
“Baseball has been my life since I started playing it,” Lewis said. “I love it and can’t get enough of it.”
Lewis realized early in life that the game of baseball was of paramount importance to him. He fondly remembers his grandfather, Bud Mollison, taking him to the ballpark to get extra cuts as a youngster. It’s a tradition that is still ongoing.
“We would just go to the field and start hitting,” Lewis recalled. “I loved it from the get-go. Every night, I remember we’d go up to the fields and take practice. It was fun.”
Jamie Harris, Lewis’ coach at Vestavia Hills, helps coach his son’s youth football team in the offseason. There have been several instances his son has noticed a pitcher and batter at the other end of the field.
“You cannot go to Wald Park and be there for more than an hour without seeing them,” Harris said.
It’s that love of the game that has allowed Lewis to improve continually throughout his high school years. He primarily pitches and plays first base for the Rebels and is a key bat in the middle of the order.
“If everybody in our program was like him, we’d never lose a game,” Harris said. “He outworks everyone, plays hard, takes it serious and he enjoys the game and has a passion for the game.”
Because of all that, Lewis earned a baseball scholarship at Jacksonville State University and will likely pitch and play outfield for the Gamecocks. On the mound, Harris has seen Lewis’ velocity rise from 80 miles per hour to now being a left-handed arm that can touch 89 with a “wipeout” changeup and an improved breaking ball.
His bat’s not bad either.
“He can literally drive the ball out of the park in any part of the park,” Harris said. “When he stays within himself and stays gap to gap, he’s an extra-base threat in any count.”
One of Lewis’ top baseball memories is scoring the winning run in a playoff game two years ago, when the Rebels advanced all the way to the Class 7A semifinals.
But he wants to create a new favorite memory this season.
He’s hopeful his senior class can help the Rebels claim their first state title since 2000, when they capped off a streak of nine in 10 years.
“It means a lot because so many great players came before us,” Lewis said of the importance of playing at a tradition-rich program like Vestavia Hills. “We know we have to respect them and play as hard as they did and hopefully get back to the winning ways.”
Lewis realizes this spring will be his final one playing with a core group of guys who have been together for over a decade, and he wants to go out the right way.
“It’s my last chance to play with all my friends and in front of this community,” he said. “I love Vestavia baseball. It’s really special to me.”
