Carlos James / UAM Media Services
Arkansas-Monticello baseball coach Carlos James says he is an “eternal optimist.” That is probably the key thing that has led to early recruiting success for his new team.

James says 41 players will be joining UAM’s baseball club this fall on scholarship, thanks to that optimism and an obviously urgent effort to rebuild the faltered Boll Weevils baseball program, which generated a record of 6-65 over the past two seasons.

James added that 10 of the 41 signees are academic-scholarship players set to join the program, which had only 12 players when he was hired as the interim head coach in March.

“I had to ask four players who had quit the team to return just so we could finish the season,” James said in recent a telephone interview. “We finished the season with them, and had to go against SAU, OBU, and Delta State, three of the top-10 teams in the nation and all in our conference.”

The Gulf South Conference’s Delta State, Southern Arkansas, and Ouachita Baptist are stellar NCAA Division II powerhouses. Two of the schools are UAM’s longtime, in-state rivals, and OBU is the Division II National Championship runner-up. From March 29 to April 13, the Boll Weevils played the three powers a combined eight times and lost by a total score of 148-28, including a 31-0 shutout by the Muleriders in Magnolia and a 20-3 loss to Delta State in Monticello.

UAM went on to finish the season 0-37. Needless to say, James took his kicks early and often enough, and was primed for redemption with a small thirst for vengeance to motivate him when the recruiting season began.

“I’m from Pine Bluff, and we take things pretty seriously when it comes to baseball,” James said. “SAU, OBU, and Delta State were each No. 1 at one time last season. I did my research, and there were like six teams in the Gulf South Conference that had been ranked in the top-10 in the nation. They call it the SEC of Division II.

“That (playing OBU, Delta State, and SAU in a 3-week span) was a year’s worth of playing in three weeks,” James added, “so I haven’t forgotten it.”

James responded to the poor finish with 41 recruits that includes 31 junior college transfers who James said he expects should be ready to immediately help the Weevils. James, who previously worked as an associate scout with the Seattle Mariners, said that JUCO season hadn’t ended when their season ended, and he was able to go and meet a lot of prospects on the Mississippi and Texas recruiting scene.

“We tried to talk to those players who were on the D-I, D-II border, and try to get them to choose D-II,” James said. “We got three big-time players from Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, and once we got them, the word just spread like wildfire. We’re blessed.”

Word didn’t have to spread much for James in the Pine Bluff area. Billy Bock’s former standout went home and immediately nabbed former Zebra standouts Brandon Arnold and Kenny Marshall, Watson Chapel’s Todd Taylor and Brett Steward, and White Hall’s Sean Baldwin. Despite having to compete with a bundle of junior college players, James feels that his first Pine Bluff prep recruiting class are four-year cornerstones to his program.

“I’m excited about getting these guys,” James said of his incoming Pine Bluff freshmen. “These guys’ upside is huge. It’s really a blessing, because you never think that you would have a chance to recruit and coach a kid you coached and watch grow from little league.”

That was the case for Pine Bluff’s Marshall, who James coached in little league. At 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, James said that both James and Arnold have raw power and athleticism that he “can’t teach.”

“Once we find a position for him, there’s no limit to Brandon’s athleticism,” James said. “And with Kenny, he is pitcher who has raw ability and can throw into the mid- to high-80s. The sky’s the limit for him.”

James called Taylor “an asset to the program once we get him in and he matures.” He said he expects Steward to pitch, but he could easily see him playing in other spots. And James is equally excited about Baldwin’s work ethic.

“He’s a scrapper,” James said of the White Hall signee. “He’s the type of kid you build a program around. He always gets it done. You need guys like that to be the backbone of your team.”

James added that he expects Pine Bluff players to continue to be mainstays in his program, as it strives for respectability. With that, however, James said he plans to recruit his hometown’s standouts with the same respect for the recruiting process that he holds when he’s recruiting outside of Pine Bluff.

“I’m going to recruit in Pine Bluff, James said. “When I recruited Brandon (Arnold) everything was official. “I have a friendship with his family, but I want everyone to know that everything with UAM is first-class, and we’re going to make the (GSC) a lot better.”