Early exposure to baseball helped Stephen Martino craft not only skill at the game, but a love of getting better.
Work ethic has pushed Martino to the top as the Clearwater senior recently signed a letter of intent to further his baseball career with Williams Baptist College.
"Right now they're trying to build their baseball program around a hard work ethic and that's what I'm all about," Martino said.
Added Clearwater coach Cole Sheets, "I don't believe anybody on the team works harder on the team than Stephen. I think he kind of sets the tone for hard work and perseverance and everybody else follows his lead."
The Tigers' outfielder will have a familiar face to lean on during his time with the NAIA program.
Kendall Fay, an assistant coach on the Williams Baptist staff and a Clearwater alum, was an integral part of getting Martino to join the Eagles. Fay is the brother of Kameron and Karson -- two of Martino's teammates -- and has held baseball camps in Piedmont in the past.
"He was a great ball player when he was here at Clearwater and I've always kind of looked up to him, I guess you could say," Martino said. "I've known him for a long time, he's helped me with my game a lot and he was a big part of my decision to go there."
Martino applied to Williams Baptist towards the beginning of his senior year, strictly looking for a school close to home that would benefit him academically. With the thought of wanting to continue his athletic career always lurking in the back of his mind, Williams Baptist presented him with an opportunity he simply couldn't pass up.
"Originally I was just looking at it for academics," Martino said. "As I started to show interest in going to their school, they kind of threw baseball at me and I took it and ran with it."
Two visits to the campus in Arkansas in November, where he worked out for the coaches and got a feel for the campus, solidified his decision further.
"It has that feel of a small-town community within a town and I'm used to that," Martino said. "Most of the campus is made up of about 75 percent of student-athletes. The teachers know what a student-athlete's schedule is so they're going to be willing to work with my schedule. That helped a lot."
Martino will join a program that went 22-29 overall and 12-14 in the American Midwest Conference in 2016. Currently, Williams Baptist is 12-25 and 4-20 in conference play.
In his time with the Tigers this season, Martino has a .289 batting average with a home run, three doubles, three triples and 19 RBIs. On the mound he has struck out 12 and walked eight in 10 1/3 innings, dropping his ERA to 0.67.
When he's not pitching, Martino starts in left field, shares time in center and has become a versatile player for Clearwater.
"I think you can put him in right field and he'll do the job just as well," Sheets said. "He's got a good arm, he's quick and he reads the ball pretty well."
Sheets is Martino's sixth coach in four seasons. Though the transitions have been less than ideal, Martino has dealt with each one seamlessly.
"It was kind of a challenge because you'd start going one way and all of the sudden the new coach throws you a curveball and you're doing something else," Martino said. "It's been a transition every year, but every baseball coach I've ever had has had a great impact on my baseball career. I've gotten different things from all six and used it all to make me a better player."
Martino, the Salutatorian for the 2017 graduating class, currently holds a 3.91 GPA and has been challenging himself with tougher classes throughout the year. He plans to major in secondary education and start a career as a high school history teacher.