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By Marlin Curnutt

Citizen Tribune

 

Walters State baseball has long held the reputation for churning out power hitters and one local product is close to carving his name at the top of the list.

Former Claiborne Bulldog Tyler Myatt was always a good hitter when he was playing in New Tazewell but once he took his talents and huge potential to Morristown to play for head coach Dave Shelton, his numbers flew through the roof. Literally.

To say he is having a monster season for the top-ranked Senators just doesn’t seem to do justice to the performance Myatt has had on the field this season.

He not only is the TCCAA Player of the Year after winning the triple crown (batting average, home runs and RBIs), he also is the national triple crown winner as no other two-year college player in the country posted the kind of numbers Myatt has in 2025.

Those numbers are simply absurd: with the Senators headed to the World Series, he is batting .497 with 29 home runs and a mind-boggling 104 runs batted in. He has a .592 on-base percentage and a 1.031 slugging percentage and just a few weeks ago saw his batting average hit an unheard of .510 at the plate.

His 29 homers is tied for the school record and he is three RBIs shy of tying Alberto Osuna’s record during the 2021 season. Myatt is also nine hits away from the WSCC hits record that Osuna accomplished during the 2021 season.

Those kinds of numbers may make it appear that all this success came easy for Myatt but he said he had to overcome adversity last summer playing for the Kingsport Axmen in the Appalachian League in the way he approached the plate.

“Honestly, it’s the mental side of the game. I had a rough summer as I just kept trying to copy people and mimic their swing and you can’t do that in baseball because you have to be your own self. Trying to copy someone else, you aren’t going to have success.”

The first year at Walters State found Myatt redshirting and he said that helped tremendously in preparing for the kind of season he has had in 2025. “Our redshirts this year are pretty special and we have two pitchers who throw over 95 mph. They aren’t playing this year and it’s kind of crazy how last year when I redshirted, I still played as much as the regular roster guys because of how much we scrimmaged intersquad throughout the week. Just the experience of that and seeing the pitching and getting live ground balls and fly balls, all that calculated into helping to prepare for this season.”

Not only did Myatt have to find his place in the batting order but also in the field. Despite some trial and error, Myatt found his grove and hasn’t looked back. “I tried going in as a third baseman last year and coach Shelton and I sat down and talked because we knew that wasn’t going to be the fit and he said why don’t we try second base. We tried that a few months ago and everything just seemed to click. It all worked out and the stock is higher in the pros for a power-hitting second baseman so we are going to stick with that.’

His play was a vital part of the Senators’ 55-6-1 overall record, winning the conference regular season and tournament championships and punching their ticket to the juco World Series. “We aren’t going to the World Series just to be a part of it, we are going to get a ring,” the WSCC slugger said of his team’s ultimate goal in the post-season.

As a senior at Claiborne, Myatt grew frustrated as opposing teams wouldn’t throw to him but just issued walks. No one could blame them as they didn’t want to fall victim to the Bulldog great’s power game. That certainly isn’t the case for Myatt now playing for one of the nation’s elite two-year programs as he has mashers in front of him, behind him and in reality, up and down the Senators’ lineup. Holden Pantier bats in front of Myatt and is hitting .393 with 12 homers and 65 RBIs. Jack Vogele bats behind him and has an incredible .433 average with 18 homers and 89 RBIs. “That happened the other day against Georgia Highlands as they walked me in my first at-bat then Holden, who hits behind me, hit a double and I scored,” Myatt said. “Even if I don’t get on base, everyone behind me is still going to rake because we don’t have a soft spot in our lineup.”

Walters State goes to Grand Junction, Colorado for the World Series and that’s a place the Senators are certainly no stranger to. Myatt points to one thing that makes this team unique as it attempts to bring home its second national championship. “We are a very humble team and that’s what makes us special. A lot of teams we play are very cocky but they are always going to do their best because they want to beat us really bad. We are humble and stay together and this is the closet team I have ever been with. When we go out to eat or something like that, we don’t even talk about baseball but talk about life in general. We go out an compete every day and everyone is for everyone else because there is no selfishness on this team.

‘Being the best hitter in the nation certainly will get a player noticed and college coaches are lining up to talk to Myatt as he is being recruited by multiple SEC clubs. “It’s exciting and it’s a real blessing to feel wanted by all these schools,” Myatt said.

Playing in Colorado should be to Myatt’s liking as he chases the school homer, RBI and hits top marks. “That record is going to be broken next week. I’m tied for it right now but we will get it done,” he said with a smile when asked about hitting in the thin Rocky Mountain air.

The Senators will be playing in the World Series for the 12th time in school history and enters the event ranked number one in the country. They will find out when and who they play against on May 21 at noon when the bracket is released and the World Series runs from May 24 through May 31.