C. JEMAL HORTON
Two of Cabarrus County’s top high school pitchers will have the chance to move on to the next level soon – the professional level.
In the meantime, a former Hickory Ridge pitcher who played at East Carolina University, has the same opportunity.
That’s because they heard their names called in the Major League Baseball draft Tuesday.
A.L. Brown’s CJ Gray was the first Cabarrus player chosen on Day 2 of the draft, when he went in the fifth round (140th overall) to the Los Angeles Angels.
Ethan Young, a former Hickory Ridge star who played in the junior college ranks before moving on to East Carolina, was next, taken by the St. Louis Cardinals, also in the fifth round (150th overall).
Later on Day 2, it was recent Jay M. Robinson graduate Jake Barbee’s turn, when the Texas Rangers picked him in the 12th round (335th overall).
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The draftees show that Cabarrus County produces some of the best baseball around.
Gray, who was the 2025 Greater Metro 4 Conference Player of the Year this season and a four-year all-conference performer, is an athlete who creates a lot of intrigue because the right-hander is high in the pitcher rankings for his class and boasts a scholarship to N.C. State. Scouts repeatedly mention the “upside” he would bring to the Angels, should he choose to shun his Wolfpack invite and head to the pros.
It is not known whether Gray – the first A.L. Brown player drafted since former Appalachian State star Garrett Sherrill was taken by the Milwaukee Brewers in 2008 – will keep his commitment to the Wolfpack or go ahead and begin his pro career. However, last year’s 140th pick, former Coastal Carolina infielder Sam Antonacci, earned a $572,500 signing bonus and joined the Chicago White Sox, and he is turning heads in their minor league system, including a brief stint with the Kannapolis Cannon Ballers. Antonacci is now with the Double-A Winston-Salem Dash.
Former A.L. Brown star CJ Gray (10) times pitches before getting in the batter’s box.
Joan Moore/Special to The Independent Tribune
It is believed that Gray, who was one of 13 pitchers the Rangers chose in the draft, could command an even higher signing bonus, as much as seven figures, according to some scouts,
Last season for A.L. Brown, the athletic Gray, who doubled as a standout quarterback for the Wonders, was pure dominance on the diamond, as he batted .508 and hit 11 home runs, and lost just one of four games as a pitcher. He regularly reached pitching speeds of 96 and 97 mph, and some scouts say he has the ability to hit 100 mph as a pro.
As such, Gray was projected as an early-round pick.
“He’s a very dynamic kid,” former A.L. Brown coach Empsy Thompson, who retired after the season, said of Gray. “He’s electric on the mound. You can’t teach some of the talent he has, and it’s only going to get better.”
Before Gray, there hadn’t been an A.L. Brown player picked right out of high school since 1993 when Andy Smith was chosen by the Oakland A’s in the fifth round. The year before, his brother, Hut, was a fourth-round pick by the Baltimore Orioles after being named Gatorade Player of the Year.
Thirty-two years later, Gray leaves his imprint on the A.L. Brown program.
“It’s a pretty special moment for A.L. Brown,” Thompson said of Gray’s draft status. “Everybody’s very proud of him. But he’s put in the work, and that’s the biggest thing about it. Yeah, he’s got some God-given ability, but he also is a kid who works as well, and that’s something you can’t really teach; it kind of has to be inside of you. And he’s a self-starter. He doesn’t need to be led by his teammates, his coaches; he does a lot of work behind the scenes as well, just to make sure he has a chance to be his best.
“He’s been a kid that’s only been able to focus on one thing for maybe the last two months of life? He’s always been playing football, baseball or basketball. Just him concentrating on one thing, I really think the ceiling is very high.”
That’s just what the Angels want to hear.
Jake Barbee caught a lot of folks by surprise when he was chosen by the Texas Rangers in the 12th round on Day 2 of the draft,
But Ryan Hodges wasn’t one of them,
The Jay M. Robinson coach knew what he had in Barbee, a right-handed pitcher who handled several other positions while earning all-conference honors for the Bulldogs in 2025.
Hodges saw a fighter, a winner, someone who cared about “team,” someone who was willing to work for what he wanted.
And he finally got it Tuesday.
“Jake is a leader by example,” Hodges said. “He’s going to do all the right things on the field. He became more vocal as the years progressed. He played four years for me, and he matured pretty quickly while he was out there. He’s played shortstop, he’s been a pitcher pretty much all four years, every day for us. He’s been that guy that we’ve gone to any time we needed him, and he would step up.
“He’s just a great kid in the classroom, in the community, and you love to see kids like that come through. He’s a hard worker. He works on his own, and he’s developed. He wasn’t always the biggest kid. From middle school through high school, he’s had to put in the work, and that effort is finally starting to pay off for him.”
This past season for the Bulldogs, Barbee fanned 78 batters while posting a 1.29 ERA in 48.2 innings. In addition, he was third on the team at the plate with a .338 batting average and a team-best 13 RBIs for a squad that finished in the middle of the pack in the South Piedmont 3A Conferences.
Those numbers were good enough to get Barbee a ride to USC Upstate and, of course, the all-conference bid.
But then the draft came calling.
Jay M. Robinson’s Jake Barbee, who was drafted by the Texas Rangers, pitches during his days as Bulldog.
CHRISTY BARBEE, SPECIAL TO THE INDEPENDENT TRINBUNE
“I’m super excited for him and his family,” Hodges said. “It’s an awesome opportunity, life changing. I can’t wait to see what he’s going to do because I know he’s got the work ethic.”
The Bulldogs have had their share of draft picks over the years, including most recently pitchers Seth Johnson (first round, Tampa Bay Rays, 40th overall in 2019) and Brody Koerner (17th round, New York Yankees, in 2015).
“It’s super exciting for the baseball program,” Hodges said. “Before my time, we had Brody Koerner, and we had Seth Johnson, who have both made it and have done some pitching and everything. But any time you get something like this happen, it opens people’s eyes to the program.
It’s been fun being able to coach (Barbee) and have the opportunity to be around him and see him put in the work. But we’re super excited as a coaching staff to see him get this opportunity for something he’s worked so hard for.”
Now that he’s earned it and gotten here, Hodges didn’t reveal to the Independent Tribune what Barbee was going to do – head to college at USC Upstate or go pro.
Either way, he’d be living a dream.
Last year’s 355th pick, Sean Heppner by the Cleveland Guardians, also a right-handed pitcher, inked a $150,000 signing bonus.
If he leaves, Barbee will be beginning the steps towards becoming the second Cabarrus County player with the Rangers, joining Northwest Cabarrus legend Corey Seager, who is also one of the league’s top players, on the roster.
But Hodges doesn’t want to ruin Barbee’s surprise.
“I don’t know the details (of his decision), but I know he was looking forward to going to USC Upstate to be a two-way player,” Hodges said of Barbee. “But, obviously, once the scouts started coming, I think he realized that pitching was his ticket to get there.
“Obviously, a lot probably depends on what (the Rangers) are bringing to the table and offering him, but I don’t know those details.”
It took two junior colleges and a four-year school.
But Ethan Young is right where he’s always wanted to be: in the professional baseball ranks.
Now a member of the famed St. Louis Cardinals’ organization, Young, a right-handed pitcher, was a fifth-round pick (150th overall) by the Cardinals Tuesday.
Young has always been a quality player, and Cardinals are getting that now.
Young, a 2022 graduate, was a bona fide star at Hickory Ridge. In current head coach Jordan Sells’ first season, Young led Hickory Ridge to a fourth-place finish in the Greater Metro 4 Conference in 2022 and earned an all-conference nod.
“He helped (that first Sells team) a lot,” Sells told the Independent Tribune. “We used him more as a kind of a high-level reliever when we were winning games trying to close games out. He also played first base and hit in the middle of our lineup. I think at the time … I won’t say he focused on hitting … but he was more focused on hitting at the time. But, obviously, once he got to college, they could see the live arm that he had, and he made that transition to pitching.”
Former Hickory Ridge pitcher Ethan Young was a fifth-round pick by the St. Louis Cardinals.
TOOD MAUDEN, SPECIAL TO THE INDEPENDENT TRIBUNE
Sells talked about that special quality Young had back then – and it wasn’t his strong right arm.
“The main thing about him is his competitiveness,” Sells said. “I’m not sure if that came from just growing up or if it came from playing football when he was here, but he had a competitiveness about him that was unmatched. “Whenever he had the ball on the mound, it was really special to watch how competitive he was. His M.O. was that he wanted the ball in big situations, and he really shined in those moments.”
In college, Young began his career at Hillsborough Community College in Tampa in 2023, where he was impressive in his 10 appearances and also played first base. But Tampa just wasn’t the right fit.
The next season, Young moved closer to home at Hickory’s Catawba Valley Community College, where he focused on pitching and set the school record for single-season saves in 2024.
Now, he was ready for a bigger challenge and he transferred to Division I East Carolina.
In his only season in Greenville, as a reliever, Young was 5-0 and posted a 3.84 ERA with 92 strikeouts in 70.1 innings pitched out of the bullpen with 23 appearances. His opponents batted just .224 against him.
In 2025, Young ranked among the Pirates’ top five in strikeouts (second), strikeouts looking (second), innings pitched (tied for second), saves (tied for second), wins (tied for second), ERA (third) and opponent batting average (tied for fourth).
That was enough to attract the Cardinals, although he was one of 22 pitchers they drafted.
For folks in the organization who haven’t seen Young play, they’re in for a treat from the small-town kid who initially dreamed of being a .300 hitter.
“He’s built himself into a really hard-throwing right-handed pitcher,” Sells said. “He’s probably sitting in the mid-90s. I think he has touched 98-99 a few times. He has a pretty hard slider that he depends on to get really good hitters out, and he’s built all of that himself. Obviously, he’s gotten the works of his college coaches and stuff, but he unlocked something as far velocity in the last two years, and he’s turned himself into a pretty high-level right-handed pitcher.”
Sells followed the MLB draft those two days and saw when Young was chosen. He cracked a smile just seeing Young’s name appear on his cellphone screen, and he decided to give Young some personal time to enjoy the moment, as numerous other well-wishers were immediately calling and texting.
When he finally talked to Young, he said he could tell he was surprised. But behind those eyes, Sells saw something else.
“I think he also understands the work that he’s going to have to put in in the near future, because we all know, once this happens, it’s not like any other draft,” Sells said. “He’s not going to report straight to the St. Louis Cardinals. He’s going to have a battle in Minor League Baseball trying to prove himself from that point. I think he understands the work he’s going to have to put in over the next couple years to make those dreams come true.
Is Young built for that? Sells is asked.
“I think he is,” the coach said. “I think that competitive nature that he has … I’m not saying a lot of people DON’T have it, because I think most people that get drafted have that competitive level. But I think his (competitiveness) will end up showing out a little bit more whenever he gets that opportunity and he’s thrust into that stage. “Whether he’s a starter or a reliever, I think he’s going to do whatever they need him to do, and that’s just the kid he is. I think that competitiveness will fill up and help him succeed at the next level.”
And now, the new journey begins.
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