Senior Greg Davis hasn’t pitched an inning for Free State this season, but he’s had a huge impact on the program.

Free State baseball coach Mike Hill was up front with Big Baby when tryouts rolled around this spring.

He took Big Baby aside and pointed out the fact that the Firebirds were loaded with talented pitchers and that, as a maybe-not-quite-as-talented pitcher, there was a very good chance that the senior wouldn’t make it into a varsity game this season.

So what did Big Baby do? He stayed, of course, becoming the official heart and soul of a team for which he hasn’t once taken the field.

As Hill predicted, Greg “Big Baby” Davis hasn’t thrown an inning — or a pitch, for that matter — this season for the 18-4 Firebirds, although this fact hasn’t kept him from putting his fingerprints all over the Free State program.

In addition to the jokes and the gung-ho work ethic he regularly brings with him to practice, there isn’t a job the guy can’t do. He’s part-field crewman (making sure the mound is properly manicured daily), part-equipment manager (ensuring the underclassmen lug the equipment bags to the practice field) and part-handyman (fixing the team’s 13-year-old public-address system when it goes on the fritz).

“He’s kind of a MacGyver-type guy,” Hill said.

“For me, it’s a team effort,” shrugged Big Baby, asked whether it’s difficult to stay motivated in his current situation. “I’m here so the team succeeds. The victories mean more to me than some individual success.”

Although, he added, smiling, “I wouldn’t mind having some individual success, too.”

There have been a couple of close calls this season. Twice, he has been sent to the bullpen to warm up only to be slapped down by the baseball gods. The most recent example came during a 13-3 victory over Shawnee Mission North, when an RBI hit — from Firebirds ace Cody Kukuk, no less — led to the game’s premature conclusion due to the run-rule.

“We still hate you for that, by the way,” joked first baseman Michael Lisher, as Kukuk walked by during a recent practice.

And Davis just keeps doing what he does.

Common sense suggests it’s unlikely he’ll find himself on the field during this weekend’s state tournament, when the fourth-seeded Firebirds will be battling for their second state title in the past five years.

Of course, to let Big Baby’s final stat line define his career, Hill says, would be a massive mistake.

“When you’re in a situation like his, and you know you’re probably not going to get to play, and you run every sprint as hard as you can and put in all the work that our kids put in, you’re an example; you’re a leader,” Hill said. “He may end the year without one trip between the white lines, but I can assure you he’s impacted this team in a way that some of the kids that play every day may not have.”