Former Columbus High star JT Phillips returns home with new perspective

Armstrong State right-hander JT Phillips can’t believe the call. He wasn’t nibbling with his fastball. He reared back and fired and he thought he had just pitched out of a first-inning, two-out jam.

He made his best pitch but didn’t hear, “Strike three.”

“It was right down the middle,” said Phillips about some adversity he faced in a recent start against Georgia College. “(The umpire) said he thought it was low. I guess it’s his opinion that matters, right.”

The 6-foot-3, 207-pound senior remained calm on the mound, added extra juice on the next pitch and blew away the batter.

If there’s one thing Columbus native John Thomas Phillips has learned it’s that success often asks for something extra. Maturity helps. Trust goes a long way.

He’ll be coming home this weekend when the Pirates visit Columbus State for a single game Saturday and a doubleheader Sunday. Phillips, who is slated to pitch Sunday, learned a lot on the local diamonds and says he’s added to that knowledge during three stops in his collegiate career.

“Columbus set the foundation, not just baseball,” Phillips said. “Hard work, trust, camaraderie between teammates, believing in yourself. I could go on for days, really.”

At Armstrong, Phillips has been solid despite playing for a team with a 15-26 record (6-21 Peach Belt Conference) — the first time the Pirates will finish a season under .500 in 34 years.

He leads the team with a .372 batting average and paces the ASU starting pitchers with a 4-4 record and a 3.57 earned run average.

His 103 strikeouts (in 70 ⅔ innings) rank fourth in Division II and is already the 11th best single-season mark in Pirates history.

Phillips relies on a fastball that ranges 90-92 mph and a changeup and slider that keep batters off-balance, Armstrong coach Calvain Culberson said.

And Phillips, who once had his two front teeth knocked out diving for a basketball in high school, has intangibles.

“The guy’s a competitor, and that type of mentality goes a long way,” Culberson said.

Phillips’ teammate Will Austin, an outfielder, sees the same attributes from a different angle.

“He’s a great guy and a great teammate,” Austin said. “He could care less about his statistics. He cares about winning. He’s really a team guy.”

Against Georgia College, Phillips fanned 10 in five innings — the fifth time in 10 starts he’s has 10 or more strikeouts — and left in the sixth inning with a 4-1 advantage. But the bullpen couldn’t hold the lead, and the Pirates lost 6-5.

“It was tough,” said Phillips, with a slow delivery of honesty. “It’s been a tough year.”

Particularly for an athlete who has always latched onto success with a tight grip. In 2006, as a 12-year-old, Phillips’ Little League team, Columbus Northern, defeated Japan 2-1 to give the United States its first back-to-back titles on the field since 1982.

To get to the championship game, Phillips pitched a complete-game six-hitter, striking out eight to beat Oregon, 7-3.

Four years later, he led Columbus High on a run of three straight Class AAA state baseball titles.

“(Phillips) was one of the most competitive guys we ever had,” said Bobby Howard, the former coach at Columbus before moving on to Central High. “We were so much alike maybe that’s why we got along so well. The bigger the game, the bigger he played.”

Howard credited Phillips’ family. He knows about the genes, coaching John Thomas Phillips Sr., in football. The elder Phillips played football and basketball at North Alabama.

JT Jr. took athletics to the next level as well. He earned a scholarship to Georgia, but literally and figuratively made a wrong turn, a narrative he can’t escape.

Phillips said he went to dinner with some friends who were celebrating a birthday. They drank some wine, he said. He got in his car and headed home and, following the car in front of him, inexplicably turned the wrong way on a one-way street.

Phillips said a policeman on a bicycle pulled him over and called for backup. Phillips was arrested and charged with DUI alcohol, failure to produce a license on demand, going the wrong way on a one-way street and underage alcohol.

He was kicked off the Bulldogs baseball team, left thinking about a lost opportunity and a new future.

“Honestly, I was a little too immature for the situation at the time,” Phillips said. “Straight out of my house to a college campus with (many distractions). … I should have put some of that stuff in perspective. I just got caught up in it.”

Phillips found support in Columbus and reached out to his former baseball coach, Howard.

“I’m sure he reached out to a lot of people,” Howard said. “Our staff has always treated our players like they were our kids. I told him in 10 years (the arrest) could be just a blip on the radar.”

Phillips transferred to Georgia Perimeter College, a junior college located in Alpharetta, and played shortstop and pitched in relief. He hit .419 and posted a 2-2 record on the mound with seven saves.

He was the Georgia Junior College Athletic Association Player of the Year and earned All-America honors.

In June of 2014, the Texas Rangers selected Phillips in the 18th round of the Major League Baseball draft.

A dream come true was a signature away.

But.

His girlfriend Carra Glenn, who he had been dating since high school, was pregnant. He had a son on the way.

Phillips didn’t want to be too far away. Glenn is a student at Columbus State.

“I just didn’t think the circumstances (to begin pro baseball) were right at the time,” Phillips said.

Armstrong State filled his needs, just a 3 ½-hour drive away. He could continue his college education — working on a bachelor’s degree in liberal studies with a minor in business — while still playing baseball.

“In offseason I went back to Columbus on Thursdays and came back Mondays,” Phillips said. “They came to Savannah on the weekends during season.”

Pro baseball could still be in the picture. His son, John Thomas III, is now 14 months old.

“(Pro baseball) is kind of up in the air,” Phillips said. “It’s still a dream, but I’ve gotten mixed emotions from the scouts. I feel like some of the scouts feel like I don’t want to play pro ball because of what previously happened. We’ll see, that’s all you really can do, you know.”

This story was originally published April 22, 2016 at 10:07 PM with the headline "Former Columbus High star JT Phillips returns home with new perspective."