The powerful engine driving Warren Central’s offense this season was a turbocharged V-12.

Vantrel Reed, the team’s leadoff hitter, shortstop and occasional starting pitcher, hit .323 with 11 doubles, two home runs, 22 RBIs and 32 runs scored. He set the table for a lineup that averaged seven runs per game and won 21 times while reaching the second round of the MHSAA Class 6A playoffs.

Reed — whose uniform number is 12 — didn’t lead Warren County in every category, but was its best all-around player and is the 2018 Vicksburg Post baseball Player of the Year. It’s the eighth consecutive year that a Warren Central player has won the award.

“I’m the leadoff and I want to be the spark. If I was hitting good, it would spark everybody else up. I just had to get on base,” Reed said.

Reed did that a lot. He hit safely in 19 of WC’s 31 games, including seven of the last eight.

After hitting third in the order for the first half of the season, he asked to be moved to the leadoff spot before a game against Germantown on March 30. From that point until the end of the season, he scored at least one run in eight of 12 games. That included an 8-3 win over Clinton on April 10, when Reed led off the game with a home run and later walked and scored another run.

“Before the Germantown game I texted Coach Douglas and told him I wanted to hit leadoff because I wanted to take fastballs and put my team in a good position to win and score first,” Reed said. “I like hitting leadoff because I know the first pitch, nine times out of 10, is going to be a fastball and that’s what I like — to damage fastballs.”

Reed wasn’t just a one-dimensional player, though. He was 11-for-12 on stolen bases, has started 60 of 63 games over the past two seasons, and contributed both on the mound and defensively.

As a pitcher, Reed was 3-0 in six starts and two relief appearances this season, with a 1.79 ERA and 35 strikeouts in 27 1/3 innings. He had 10 strikeouts in a win over Vicksburg, and opponents hit just .206 against him.

And, at shortstop, he committed one error in his last 17 games — and none in the last 12 — for a .982 fielding percentage over the second half of the season. He had one error in 56 total chances in the last 17 games.

“The last 12 games I didn’t make an error. I know I’m the shortstop and I’m going to start every game, so I had to fill a big role and be a leader and make plays,” Reed said.

Despite his strong year, Reed said he still considered it far from his best. Ever since his youth baseball days, Reed has been one of the best players at his age level in Warren County. That has led to some high standards for his play, he said.

“I still feel like my year wasn’t that good, but I’ll take it,” he said.

And, he vowed, he’ll work a little harder in the coming months to do better in 2019.

“I know the hard work I put in during the offseason is going to pay off,” Reed said.