On the heels of an all-state basketball season, Johnny Coy put up even more impressive numbers in his “secondary” sport.

Coy’s eye-popping totals — .640 batting average, 12 home runs, 52 runs batted in and a 1.247 slugging percentage — rank him in the top 20 of nearly every major offensive statistic in Missouri’s record book.

Benton’s 6-foot-7 third baseman, the News-Press baseball player of the year, got off to a torrid start and launched a pair of home runs in the City Round Robin. After suffering a brief, midseason lull, he responded with a monstrous day against Savannah, launching three home runs in a doubleheader.

Although his season ended in the district semifinals against Savannah, Coy still helped bring Benton another undefeated Midland Empire Conference title and paced the area’s most dangerous collection of bats. Coy capped his rapid rise in baseball when he was selected in the seventh round of this week’s Major League Baseball first-year player draft by the Philadelphia Phillies.

— ANDY MEYER

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