By Robert Wilson
Most Mississippi baseball fans know about the success of Madison Central alumnus and Stanford All-American baseball player Braden Montgomery.
The sophomore outfielder-pitcher has helped Stanford make it to the College World Series for the third consecutive season. No. 8 national seed Stanford, 44-19, plays unseeded Tennessee, 43-21, Monday at 1 p.m. (ESPN and ESPN plus) in an elimination game in Omaha. Stanford lost to No. 1 national seed Wake Forest 3-2 Friday in a first-round game.
Montgomery led Madison Central to the MSHAA Class 6A state championship and a No. 1 final national ranking two years ago and was named a 2021 high school All-American, the Mississippi Gatorade Player of the Year and Priority One Bank/Mississippi Scoreboard Metro Jackson Player of Year as a senior.
He was one of two players who were named multiple position athletes on the Collegiate Baseball Freshman All-American team and was named Pac-12 Conference Freshman of the Year for Stanford last season.
Montgomery, now a sophomore, was named second-team All-American by the American Baseball Coaches Association and first-team Pac-12 Conference this season.
But what fans don’t know is Montgomery wasn’t always the baseball star he is today. In fact, baseball wasn’t the first sport Montgomery played. Football was his first love – Montgomery’s father, Marcus Montgomery, and his stepfather, Rich Willock, both played football at Iowa and his uncle, Larry Montgomery, played football at Arizona State.
Braden Montgomery was born in Iowa and moved to Mississippi when he was about six months old because his mom, Gretchen Willcock, was doing her residency at University of Mississippi Medical Center. When Braden was seven years old, one of his neighbors (Preston Soper) was playing in a baseball league – a coach-pitch league – and his mom decided to let Braden play, too.
“He didn’t even have a bat or a glove,” Gretchen said. “We went to Wal-Mart and got him a $39.99 bat and a glove. It wasn’t one of these $200 or $300 bats.”
Montgomery kept playing football with the Jackson Steelers until the eighth grade, but he started liking baseball more. Only there was a problem. He was little, really little.
“Braden was tiny, he was the smallest kid out there,” Gretchen said. “He was fundamentally sound, and had good mechanics, but he was so small. All the coaches liked how he played, but they all said he had to get stronger and improve his bat speed and his velocity on his pitches.”
His parents hired personal trainer Gregory “G-Force” Shelton and he worked with Braden from age 13 to 18.
“Rich would take Braden his lunch every day, a full meal along with a protein shake,” Gretchen said. “Braden added weight and muscle. By the time he was 16, Braden was throwing at 90 miles per hour. Rich would also long toss with him every single day to make his arm stronger. This was years in the making. It didn’t happen overnight.”
Montgomery played at Germantown as a freshman and sophomore then switched to Madison Central as a junior.
“Braden really hadn’t done a lot before his junior year and none of the Mississippi schools – Ole Miss, Mississippi State or Southern Miss – showed any interest,” Gretchen said. “But Vanderbilt, Arkansas, Missouri, LSU, and Stanford did. The coaches couldn’t contact until Sept. 1 of their junior year, and I remember Coach (Tim) Corbin from Vanderbilt called him on Sept. 1 and that was our first visit. And he also visited Arkansas, Missouri, and Stanford. When he went to Stanford, he fell in love with it and the coaches offered an 80 percent scholarship, which was unheard of. He cancelled his visit to LSU and committed to Stanford. He decided he didn’t want it to be hanging over his head. Braden is strong academically (he finished No. 6 out of his graduating class of 433) and Stanford is a strong academic school.”
Montgomery – now 6-foot-2 and 217 pounds and bats in the cleanup position – hit safely in seven straight games, including posting multiple hits in each of the last five, entering the CWS. He was batting .336 with 69 runs scored, 14 doubles, a triple, 17 homers and 60 RBIs. Montgomery has reached in all but six games this year and has 26 multi-hit games, including 10 of his last 19 overall, and hit safely in 47 of 63 games this season. A right-handed pitcher, Montgomery has a 1-2 record and has appeared in 10 games.
Montgomery hit a school-record 18 home runs, scored 50 runs, had 57 runs batted in and hit .297 as a freshman.
In a YouTube interview with Stanford Athletics earlier this spring, Montgomery talked about being a two-way player and about being a switch-hitter. Former major league coach and minor league manager Chris Maloney of Jackson started Montgomery as a switch hitter when he was 10 years old.
“I’m more of a natural hitter,” Montgomery said. “I feel like I’ve been doing it a little longer. I grew up pitching but gave it up when I was one of the smaller guys and not throwing it as hard, I would say between 12u (12 years old and under) and 15 and 16u (16 years old and under). From my eighth-grade spring to my ninth-grade spring, I gained about 15 miles per hour on my outfield velocity. I ended up throwing in the low 90s from the outfield in my freshman year. That’s when my coaches wanted to see what I could do. As the days go by, I’m learning the pitching game more and how to come into my own. It definitely gets tough, bouncing the demands of my game, whether needing work pitching or hitting righty or lefty. I try to get pretty balanced work and I try to carry over thoughts from either side. Here is how I feel really good from the left side, maybe I should implement that on my right side. Once I get in the game, I get into the competition mode and I’m trying to square up the ball over the plate and put the barrel on it.”
Montgomery hit .479 and an 9-0 record with a 0.74 earned run average and led Madison Central to a 34-2 record, the 6A state title and a No. 1 national ranking by Baseball America as a senior.
“We are extremely proud of Braden,” Madison Central coach Patrick Robey said. “We are proud that his hard work has paid off. He was the first one there and the last one to leave when he was at practice. His success is earned. Braden is a super talented two-way player. He puts in so many hours training that he is one for young players to model their work ethic after.”
Gretchen is an emergency room physician at St. Dominic in Jackson and Rich runs the Magic Baseball Academy in Magee. Marcus Montgomery lives in Southaven and is in real estate development. Braden has three siblings, his older sister, Skylar, 22, just graduated from the University of Wisconsin and will be going to medical school. Younger brother, Mason, 14, will be a freshman at Germantown and plays baseball and younger sister, Marley, 12, will be in the seventh grade at Germantown Middle and is a gymnast.
Montgomery has about 20 family members and friends at Omaha watching him play. After he finishes this week at the CWS, Montgomery is off to the USA National Team trails in North Carolina and then to the Cape Cod League for the summer. Montgomery isn’t eligible for the Major League Draft this year (he is only 20 years old and just finished his second year of college) and will be back at Stanford next season.
