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Terrebonne High School graduate and touted professional baseball player Justin Williams has made a lot of special things happen on the baseball diamond during his 19-year life.
But what happened to the local product on Aug. 24 at little-known Four Winds Field in South Bend, Indiana, just may take the cake as the moment of the Houma native’s life.
It was the bottom of the 11th inning of a hotly contested game between the South Bend Silver Hawks and the West Michigan Whitecaps.
The Silver Hawks are a Class-A affiliate of the Arizona Diamondbacks – the MLB team that thought enough of Williams to select him in the second round of the 2013 MLB Draft.
The score was tied at 3, and Williams was in the batter’s box. He was 1-for-4 at the plate for the game – a below-average night for the slugger who is hitting better than .350 for the year. Opposing Williams was Whitecaps pitcher Zac Reininger – a tall and lanky right-handed pitcher with promise in the Detroit Tigers’ farm system.
But on this night, Reininger was off his game, and there were runners on first and second with two outs when Williams dug his cleats into the dirt and stared in.
The righty reliever’s troubles continued when he ran the count to three balls and no strikes on Williams. As the third pitch sailed wayward, Williams said he immediately looked over to Silver Hawks’ manager Mark Haley for guidance. In a close, tight-knit game, he didn’t want to overstep his bounds.
“I looked over, and I saw that I was being given the green light to swing,” Williams remembered. “So I just dug in, focused and waited for that pitch – the perfect pitch.”
Williams got it – a juicy, meaty fastball right over the inside corner of the plate. He swung hard and didn’t miss, sending a deep, high drive into the night – easily over the outfield fence for a walk-off home run.
The Silver Hawks won the game 6-3, and Williams was the hero with his first professional walk-off home run.
The night was a microcosm of the whole season for Williams, who is hitting a torrid .351 through 74 games in his second professional season with four home runs and 46 RBI, while quickly rising through the hierarchy of the D-Backs top prospects.
“Hitting my first walk-off home run in South Bend, I would say, is the most exciting moment I’ve had in professional baseball,” Williams said after telling the story of his big night. “This season has been great. I’ve really been seeing the ball well, and my hard work has paid off.”
For Williams, the home run was doubly important, because it helped his team win a key game in the midst of their chase for a championship.
South Bend finished the regular season with a 43-27 record, enough to take home the Midwest League Eastern Division Championship.
The team advanced to the playoffs, but fell in a two-game sweep at the hands of the Lake County Captains.
Williams hit cleanup for the Silver Hawks in the series and was the team’s only offensive threat. He registered three of South Bend’s nine combined hits for the two-game series, including a huge game two performance that saw Williams reached base all four times he came up to bat – going two-for-two with a pair of walks.
Williams said playing for a contender in South Bend was exciting and a thrill. Though the team came up short, the slugger said the entire experience was a blast.
“(Winning this season) was a great feeling,” Williams said. “But my teammates make it better. This is a great group of guys, and I enjoy playing with all of them. It’s been a great season.”
For Williams, the journey up to South Bend came mid-way through his second professional season. He earned his way to A-Ball after dominating for 46 games at the rookie ball level. For the Missoula Osprey, Williams was an absolute nightmare for opponents, hitting .386 with two home runs and 23 RBI.
After being called up, Williams hit .284 for South Bend, while establishing himself as one of the team’s best sluggers and most clutch players.
Williams hit .405 with runners in scoring position and .429 with two outs.
Even more astonishing is his .333 batting average when behind in the count.
“I was being more selective at the plate this year,” Williams said. “I was getting better pitches to hit.”
So with the season now over, it’s almost homeward bound for Williams.
The D-Backs’ touted prospect said he will spend the next several months working to polish his craft so that he can continue to explode when the 2015 season rolls around.
He said that he doesn’t want to change too much in his swing because of the success that he’s had.
From here, Williams said he has a goal to become a Gold Glove-caliber outfielder. The transition to the outfield has been relatively smooth for Williams so far. He was a middle infielder for most of his high school career.
“I will be working mostly on my defense,” Williams said.
From there, the former Terrebonne All-American said he has plans to build his upper body in an attempt to be bigger, faster and stronger so that he can naturally boost his power numbers at the plate.
“I plan to go to PAP and just continue to get bigger and stronger in the offseason,” Williams said. “I’ve done well so far, but there’s still always a lot of things to get better at.”
If Williams does continue to progress, that’s bad news for his opponents. Even as-is, he’s pretty dog-gone good right now.
Still just 19, who knows how many more walk-off home run stories Williams will have in his arsenal as his professional baseball journey continues.
“But I’ll always remember that first one,” Williams said. “To me, that one was really special.”
Former Terrebonne High School graduate Justin Williams is now at the Class-A level in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization. Williams hit .351 in his second season.
