Hayes Harrison, who powers Oxford to the Class 6A state championship last month, has been named the Gatorade Alabama Baseball Player of the Year.

The left-handed pitcher went 13-0 on the mound and drove in 38 runs at the plate. He has signed to play college baseball at Northwest Shoals Community College.

The Yellow Jackets went through the 6A playoffs undefeated and swept Spanish Fort in the state finals. The team finished with a 39-6 record and coach Wes Brooks said following the finals that “it might be the best team in school history.”

Harrison follows Pike Liberal Arts’ Drew Nelson, now at Auburn, who was the state’s 2022 Gatorade Player of the Year.

The award recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the field. Harrison is now a finalist for the National Player of the Year Award.

In 71 innings pitched this year, Harrison struck out 82 and had a 1.28 ERA. He allowed 43 hits and 11 walks. Harrison hit .382 at the plate and had a .497 on-base percentage.

Harrison was named the title series MVP. He hit .600 for the two games with three runs scored, three RBIs and three walks. He was the winning pitcher in Game 1.

“Hayes Harrison was the best player we faced all year,” said Eric Varnadore, head coach of Fort Payne High School, in a Gatorade press release. “He dominated on the mound — threw four pitches for strikes and changed speeds every pitch. He was composed, pitched with superior confidence and his teammates played better around him because of it.”

Other recent Gatorade Alabama Players of the Year include UMS-Wright’s Maddux Bruns (2020-2021), Chilton County’s William Kohn (2019-2020) and Morgan Academy’s Gunnar Henderson (2018-2019).

The 6-foot, 180-pound Harrison is the first Gatorade Player of the Year from Oxford High.

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