Red-shirt sophomore Demetre Taylor spent his entire summer working on his defense after not playing a single inning on the field for Eastern’s baseball team in 2013.

“I told my coach I wanted to play in the next level – play baseball in the minors, he said ‘you won’t make it as a DH. Anybody can hit. You need defense,’” Taylor said.

The last time Taylor played on the field was in his senior year at Middleton High School in 2011.

Starting the 2014 season, Eastern coach Jim Schmitz had Taylor in his lineup as the starting left fielder. The hard work had paid off.

“I was really impressed with the effort Demetre put into his defense during the offseason,” Schmitz said. “With him out there, our outfield has never had as much speed as it does now.”

But the transition did not come overnight for Taylor, as he chose not to go home following the conclusion of his first year on Eastern’s baseball team.

After the Panthers’ last game of the season against Tennessee-Martin on May 18, 2013, Taylor took the field daily, trying to better his defensive skills.

“This summer, I didn’t go home back to Florida,” he said. “I stayed here in Charleston and worked on my defense day in and day out. Constantly working on my defense.”

He said he took every chance he had to improve his ability, making baseball his number one priority.

After three hours of working on his hitting, it would be time to go play defense. It was a six-to-sometimes-seven hours of baseball for Taylor every day during the summer.

“I would have somebody, anybody set up a machine and it would send out fly balls to the outfield,” Taylor said. “I would stand in center field and the ball could go anywhere and I would just run after it and catch it.”

That continued in the fall, as after a regular team practice he would stay, taking ground balls, fly balls – whatever he could do to get better.

Maybe one of his biggest inspirations came from ending a season when he spent all of his playing time as Eastern’s designated hitter, spending no time playing on the field.

“That’s one of the things that motivated me during the summer to go out and get better on defense because I hated being the DH,” Taylor said. “I know hate is a strong word, but I hated it.”

Playing at the next level after collegiate baseball is not the lone reason Taylor wanted to make a change to his game.

He said one issue that constantly arose during the 2013 season was thinking too much, which was compounded by having no escape after a plate appearance.

“I’d hit, then I would go to the dugout and think about my last at-bat,” Taylor said. “And then I’d go back out there thinking about it. I would strikeout. Strikeout again. I would say ‘s—, I don’t want to strikeout again.’ Then, three strikes. Hat trick. That was my weakness.”

Taylor played 44 games last season, starting in 39. In 148 at-bats, he had a team-high 34 strikeouts.

One of Taylor’s biggest weaknesses was laying off opposing pitchers’ breaking balls, which caused several frustrating afternoons for the left-handed hitter, Taylor said.

“I kept missing them – I just couldn’t hit them,” he said. “I wasn’t staying back and I wasn’t relaxed and I wasn’t staying within myself. I was trying to do too much.”

This year through 26 games and 99 at-bats, Taylor has struck out 16 times, on pace for a lower strikeout total with more at-bats than last season.

“Last year, I was more in a defensive mode because I didn’t like striking out and now I’m more aggressive and relaxed at the plate,” he said.

Eastern is off to a 7-21 start, but Taylor has been one of the bright spots for the Panthers.

“He’s still young to the game, but he seems to grasp what we teach,” Schmitz said. “He understands that with a runner in scoring position, don’t try to do too much. With his two-strike approach try to expand his zone a little bit but again not trying to do too much.”

Taylor leads Eastern with 30 RBIs, which is 14 more than Caleb Howell’s 16 in the season that is second on the team. The left-fielder also leads the Panthers with four home runs.

In his last five games, Taylor has driven in 10 runs, while scoring six of his own. Adding to his hot streak, the Tampa native hit three home runs against Jacksonville State, two of which came in Saturday’s game.

“The biggest change from last year is not thinking,” Taylor said. “Last year, I would think about everything I would do wrong. This year, I don’t. I cut my brain off and just play. I let my talent and ability all out on the field.”

Overall, Taylor is hitting .354, with a slugging percentage of .616 while getting on base at a clip of .439.

He already has six more runs driven in this year than he did all of last season.

“Just being a good player and a good athlete is one thing, but being a guy in the middle of the lineup and acting like a guy in the middle is taking it to another level,” Schmitz said. “He’s understanding his role and how important it is to drive in runs.”

Aldo Soto can be reached at 581-2812 or asoto2@eiu.edu.