Pirates prospect Henry Davis is driven to succeed

Henry Davis knew what he wanted to say. He wanted to be honest, to share his truth. Some would come from the head. Some would come from the heart.

There’s a tradition on the University of Louisville baseball team in which upperclassmen address the entire team. By Davis’ third year in the program, few players in the country had résumés that could match his. He was a guaranteed first-round pick. He could even go first overall.

But Davis didn’t want to speak of his triumphs. He didn’t want to speak of the highlights. He wanted to discuss his nadir.

“I knew I wanted to be super honest,” Davis said. “I just ran them through what was going through my head.”

Davis stood at the front of a packed room. Upperclassmen in the front, underclassmen in the back, coaches to the side. On plenty of other occasions, Davis had led with his actions. On this day, he’d lead with his voice. He’d bring his team back to the plate appearance that had defined his collegiate career.

Louisville had been in the midst of its deepest postseason run in school history, having already won two games in the College World Series, but was now on the brink of elimination, trailing Vanderbilt by a run in the bottom of the ninth inning. A loss would end the Cardinals’ season. Davis settled into the batter’s box in Omaha with two outs and a runner on second base, an opportunity to play the hero.

Even having this opportunity was a testament to how much Davis had impressed in his first months on campus. He earned regular playing time as a freshman, something that isn’t guaranteed at Louisville. Two innings earlier, he had singled and gone on to score the go-ahead run. With the season on the line, Louisville needed its budding star to come through again.

Davis fell behind in the count, 1-2, but on the fourth and final pitch of the plate appearance, he received a gift: a hanging slider. He loaded. He swung. He connected.

Davis popped out. With an opportunity to tie or even win the game, he couldn’t get the ball out of the infield. Now, two years later, Davis stood in front of his team and recited the memory. But as he spoke, it became clear that his reflection of this moment wasn’t the end of his talk. It was the beginning.

“Making the last out with the tying run on second is something I want to stick with me forever. It’s those moments that make you reflect on what you could have done differently. It’s not a good feeling,” Davis said. “As a freshman, I felt…