How a former Gulfport baseball star’s path led him from Tulane to Southern Miss
After signing with Tulane out of Gulfport High School, Blake Johnson feels like he has found the place he was supposed to be all along in Southern Miss.
The Jones College sophomore catcher/infielder signed with the USM baseball program this week, putting him on track to join the Golden Eagles for the 2021 season.
Johnson picked up a USM offer a month ago and committed a week later, but his decision wasn’t made public until the Golden Eagles announced a 12-man signing class this week.
He picked USM over offers from South Alabama and McNeese State.
“It feels kind of like I’m going home after going to Tulane and coming back,” Johnson. “I get to stay in Mississippi.
“It wasn’t that hard of a decision.”
Former Gulfport pitcher Alex Nelms, who is a senior right-handed reliever for the Golden Eagles, gave Johnson an inside look at the program. His decision was also helped by the fact that new USM assistant Ladd Rhodes served as his hitting coach at Jones College last season.
Johnson spent the 2018 fall semester at Tulane, but it gradually became obvious that the New Orleans school wasn’t a good fit.
“It was real expensive to go there because I was just on academic (scholarship),” Johnson said. “Me and my mom talked about it, and it was just one of those things where I didn’t love it so much that it was worth putting us in that much debt. We decided it was best as a family if I left.”
Johnson transferred to Jones College in Ellisville — where head coach Chris Kirtland has helped establish one of the nation’s better junior college programs.
He played catcher, third base and got some action on the mound out of the bullpen for the Bobcats this past season. He hit .340 with seven homers and 34 RBIs. As a right-handed reliever, he had a 1.64 ERA in 11 innings.
“He’s the kind of player that’s a difference maker in our league,” Kirtland said. “This year, we plan to use him exclusively behind the plate. He’s a kid that will help you win the game defensively and he’s also got the power to hit it out of the park. Southern Miss is getting a good one.
“He has pro tools behind the dish because of his arm. He also has a pro tool with some power at the plate. Through our first 20 games, he had seven home runs. His power numbers sort of leveled out, but his batting average rose toward the end of the year and he finished with some of our best freshman numbers. We’re looking for him to be a mainstay in the middle of the lineup this season.”
As a senior at Gulfport, Johnson hit .463 with nine homers and 38 RBIs.
USM coach Scott Berry and his staff didn’t recruit Johnson much out of Gulfport, but that was mainly because there were already enough catchers on the roster. USM had to sign a pair of catchers — Arkansas transfer Andrew Stanley and junior college transfer Brian Davis — after Cole Donaldson wrapped up his eligibility at the end of the 2019 campaign and Bryant Bowen transferred to South Carolina for his final season.
Berry likes Stanley and Davis behind the plate, but the chance to add Johnson was hard to pass up.
“Blake gave us a quality catcher and a guy who can play other positions,” Berry said. “He’s got the athleticism to not only catch, but make himself useful in other areas.”
Along with the athleticism, Johnson brings intelligence.
“Blake is probably the smartest person in the room every time he walks into a room,” Kirtland said. “That’s definitely a positive. After baseball one day, he’ll be making some real decisions and influencing people’s lives, and saving people in the medical industry. That translates for him on the field. He’s got a real feel for controlling the game.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 12:32 PM.
