Potters player profile: Trace Willhoite has top-level talent

Now batting for the Lincoln News Messenger's series of Lincoln Potters 2021 player profiles: Trace Willhoite, Northwest Florida State College. Even as a sophomore at Scott County High School in Georgetown, Kentucky, Willhoite had enough talent to be recruited by the University of Louisville, a national baseball powerhouse that has six 50-win seasons and four NCAA College World Series appearances in the past 10 seasons. But Willhoite, a former Perfect Game All American third baseman, quickly found out that some things don't always go as planned. "I went to Louisville my freshman year, and I was there all fall, but it just wasn't a good fit," Willhoite said. "I wasn't gonna have a chance to play very soon, so I transferred at the break last winter." Potters manager Ryan Stevens knows the feeling of starting at a Division I school and kicking back to a smaller junior college. He said there is a different mentality among players in those situations. "You do have a big chip on your shoulder in that you try to prove everybody wrong and that you deserve to be where you are," Stevens said. "With (Willhoite) bouncing back to where he is now, it's a better fit for him. He's getting opportunities to bat third or fourth in the lineup and an opportunity to get seen and show off all of his tools." Willhoite left Louisville for another national baseball juggernaut at the junior college level: Northwest Florida State College. There, Willhoite hit .303 with one home run, 14 RBIs and 15 runs scored in 23 games before COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the second half of the 2020 season. "We had a pretty good spring going before everything shut down. We could've made a run for it," said Willhoite, whose Raiders were 18-5 at the time of the shutdown. "It was pretty devastating for us. We had some good players and one guy getting drafted as a pitcher. It was tough on everybody having to leave." Without a collegiate season to finish, Willhoite and some high school teammates found ways to stay in shape any way they could. "We went to our high school field and hit every day," Willhoite said. "We made some wooden dumbbells to get some workouts in with the gyms closed. We did whatever we could to stay in shape, went on runs and hit and throw on the field every day." Willhoite was able to play some games over the summer in the Commonwealth Collegiate Baseball League, one of Kentucky's versions of the Potters' California Collegiate League. Willhoite looks forward to playing in the CCL next summer. "I love the college summer ball atmosphere that the community creates around the team and how they take the team under their wing like their own Minor League team," Willhoite said. Not only does Willhoite excel on the baseball field, he takes care of business in the classroom as well. He took several college prep courses in high school, allowing him to earn his Associate's degree after his freshman year. The Potters look forward to having a steady presence in the lineup and at the hot corner from Willhoite. "For us, he'll be a big time bat in our lineup that can produce RBIs and runs and hit the ball out of the ballpark," Stevens said. "He's one of the better hitters we have coming in this summer."