Anna Baker: When hitting for average isn’t enough
Eagle Valley senior shines a light in the classroom, on the court and in the field
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Bases loaded. Final inning. Final game.
Up-to-bat and trailing, league-power Palisade (17-4 at the time) hopes to avoid a senior night home upset. Whack! A member of the No. 5-ranked Bulldogs drills one to shallow right-center field. If it falls safely in front of Eagle Valley’s charging centerfielder Anna Baker — whose bevy of knee-slide catches will elicit a “Rock of Ages” reference during softball coach Jason Vargas’ season-celebration banquet speech — Palisade is poised to at least tie the game. If the senior outfielder makes the improbable catch, the much-improved Devils walk away with a program-defining victory.
Baker, the game’s unquestioned defensive stalwart and arguably the offensive player of the night, too (stat line: 2-for-4 and a pair of RBI’s), lays out for the ball and corrals it into her glove. Upon hitting the field, however, it pops loose.
The image of the ball jolting from its once-secure home paints an appropriate picture of the 17-year-old’s own high school career.
Her story goes beyond winning the 2022 Western Slope League player of the year on a team she joined 15 months ago (after moving across the state mid-pandemic), or being on the region-sweeping VMS tennis squad last spring — or getting straight-A’s. It’s about a player her coaches and teachers call a young ‘light’ — on the field, in the classroom, and on the court — who chose to navigate the classic ‘new-school-new-friends’ conundrum as well as COVID-19’s novel challenges with a timeless compass: belief and hard work.
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Rare breed, uncommon motivation
Eagle Valley physics teacher Steven Schachtner was watching students complete an assignment when he noticed an irregular social phenomenon for 2022. The girl who joked with him earlier in the year for being ‘friendless’ had made quick work of his worksheet — but that was normal.
“Rather than reaching for her phone like most students, she would quiz a fellow student in vocab for their English class,” Schachtner recalled of Anna Baker’s habitually uncommon behavior.
“She holds herself to a very high standard and works hard to achieve her goals. These qualities are rare nowadays. Beyond Anna’s undeniable creativity and intelligence, her very nature establishes a level of compassion and civil discourse throughout the class,” he continued. “She has the rare ability of truly listening to another and engaging them in productive collaboration.”
The summer of 2021 move from Canon City — responsible for Baker’s temporary loneliness — weighed on her dad, Pat, who remembered the “tear-filled” drive directly from the state tennis tournament Anna had qualified for (in her first year trying the sport) to the family’s new Eagle home.
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“You can imagine that moving for a 10th grader, away from her home and friends where she was rooted and connected, was an extremely difficult situation and burden to bear,” Pat said.
“I was very distraught,” Anna reflected. “The move was really hard, obviously, especially as a teenage girl.”
On the diamond, Anna quickly forged friendships with her new teammates, according to Eagle Valley head coach Matt Kreutzer, who credited the smooth transition to her pupil’s character.
“Anna is one-of-a-kind. She has a light that shines so bright it’s contagious,” he said.
“Her character is so strong, she makes others around her better people. She is an amazing young woman and someone you just want to be around.”
Fellow coach Jason Vargas concurred, remarking how his first impression of the centerfielder was, “this is one happy girl.”
“If she swung at a bad pitch, she would laugh at herself. Just her stepping onto the field was done with a certain level of humility and of course, a smile,” he said.
“Her smile definitely rubbed off on the team and the coaches.”
Baker switched to a happy-go-lucky mindset when she first pulled on a Devils uniform, a conscious decision after leaving her old life behind.
“I just kind of realized that I don’t have to make myself sick worrying about my performance. I’m going to be the best I can be. I decided I could control what I can control, and I can control my attitude about the game, so I’m going to have the best attitude about the game,” she said.
“I’m not going to worry about the rest because it’s in God’s hands and the glory is going to him whether I do well or not.”
Kreutzer said the five-tool player brought “a strong work ethic, enthusiasm and great attitude” to his team, which was coming off of a 2-14 2020 mark. In her junior year, the Devils went 9-12. This season, after a slower start offensively, Baker’s potent stick provided reliability from the batting order’s third position. Nowhere was that more evident than against Rifle, a team Eagle Valley hadn’t beaten in six years until this fall.
“She put on a hitting clinic,” Vargas described of Baker’s 3-for-4, two doubles and four RBI-effort in a seven-run comeback win.
“Going into that game, none of us thought there was even a chance to beat them,” Baker admitted. Before taking the field, the team was inspired by pitcher Mattie Hobbs’ words: “Guys, I really want to beat them — we gotta beat them.”
“I think we just went in there with a determined mentality,” Baker continued. “I think we were really good at being the underdogs (this year). Even just coming back from a loss, we were very good with our mental game.”
Throughout its winning season, Eagle Valley benefited from Baker’s astute angles chasing down fly balls, and of course, her trademark slides.
“She played stellar defense all year long and came up with gigantic plays in big games against our league opponents,” Kreutzer said. “That’s the key to being named player of the year in the western slope.”
In overcoming an untimely move and battling the first COVID-laced prep quadrennial, the senior’s resiliency and pursuit of success is a welcome breath of fresh air. Her foundational philosophy of excellence, however, is maybe her most unique quality. When asked what drives her to do things like extra studying — when her homework is finished and GPA sits comfortably at a 4.0 already — Baker’s response is immediate and grounded.
“Honestly, I’m a very strong Christian and I base all my principles off of the Bible and I believe that when you’re working for something, it’s like you’re working for God,” she said. In a society saturated by those who’ve settled for, as the old baseball phrase labels, “hitting for average,” Baker’s deepest desire is to absolutely maximize her talents.
“I want to do my best in everything I try because it’s like I’m doing it for God,” she continued in a 1 Corinthians 10:31 vein.
Even the tumultuous move had a silver lining, she said, as it catalyzed her convictions and set in motion a tangible spiritual shift that bled directly into her perspective on athletics.
“The hardship and how much it hurt to leave, I think that’s what brought me closer to God and ultimately that’s what changed my attitude about things,” she said regarding her faith.
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“I was just like, ‘it doesn’t really matter how well you do. Everything is fleeting. But what matters are the girls around you and how you perceive yourself. Just being happy and being a good sport…. so that people can see that’s how you deal with things, I guess.”
“I honestly can say now that I would not want it any other way,” she continues, spelling out her theology behind the worn adage, ‘everything happens for a reason,’ before concluding, “I’m really happy here and I’m glad we moved.”
While there are many facets to Anna Baker, the clear heartbeat has rubbed off on those around her.
“She is a testament to the way her parents have raised her,” Kreutzer noted. “Anna always gives her best in everything she does and she puts in the work. The more work you put into something, the more you get out. She has been taught to never give up, stay persistent, and always give her best.”
Baker, who said she spent “half of her childhood” watching her older brother and two older sisters play sports, cites her dad, who received an MLB tryout at 16, as her main sporting role model. She remembers playing catch together after dinner and getting a night-before crash course on bunting before her first varsity tryout.
“I know it’s important to him and I thought it was really cool that softball could be important to me, too,” she said. “He was really my main idol I guess.”
“Kimberly and I believe that in most instances, our kids have turned out well in spite of us rather than because of us,” Pat humorously stated.
A fitting finish
“I just remember feeling a buzz all game because we were actually not being beaten by Palisade — we were holding them,” Baker recalled of her final softball game ever. The senior’s shortlist of colleges includes Pepperdine University, Colorado State University, Colorado College and the University of Utah — tennis, her favorite sport, is still in the cards, but she’s closed the last softball chapter.
With two outs and the Devils’ lead on Palisade hanging in the balance, Baker tracked what would end up being the final fielding play of her career. As it lofted between first and second base, she went into an all-out sprint.
“I remember thinking, there was no way I’m going to get this if I don’t leave my feet,” she recollected. Her half-dive, half-slide led to an initial reception, but the ball suddenly shook out. On the ground, Baker saw it floating above her body for a slow-motion second, then smashed it against her stomach with her free, bare hand, securing the ball — and the outcome.
Shaking from excitement, she lay for an extra moment, waiting for the umpire’s official call. It came, awarding the Devils with a season-ending league win.
“That was just an incredible end to an incredible journey with softball,” she beamed, clearly content. “It’s my favorite sport season ever.”
With every distressing story on how the last few years have negatively impacted young people, and for the many instances where it’s perhaps true, the Anna Bakers of the world provide a positive hope for teachers, coaches and others who pour their time and energy investing in kids.
“I can’t say enough about this young woman,” said Schachtner. “I am sorry she had to overcome the hardships associated with moving at such a tough time, but I am so glad she came into all of our lives here at Eagle Valley High School. She is the type of person that makes wherever she is a better place.”
“I remember hearing coach Matt (Kreutzer) say at one point during the season that if there was one person he’d like his daughter to be most like, it would be Anna,” Vargas added. “ I can’t say that I disagree.”
The Devils were an RPI sliver away from the playoffs. Even so, for Baker, it isn’t just about winning awards. After all, numerous Front Range players over the years have possessed gaudier numbers and led undefeated teams to state titles. Her real modus operandi isn’t based on the world’s standard, though. Instead, it’s rooted in what she feels is an unshakeable source of purpose.
“I try to do my best everywhere because that’s honorable to God,” she said. “And I’m just trying to bring all the glory to God that I can with the abilities that he’s given me.”
