Mahtomedi's Carter Shook 'Like A Linebacker Playing Shortstop'

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- He is the starting shortstop for the number-one seeded team in the Minnesota State High School Baseball Tournament.

It is a lot of responsibility, but Mahtomedi High School baseball coach Rob Garry says Carter Shook has the perfect mindset for it.

"If your definition of unique to describe Carter is ultra-aggressive all the time, then you're accurate. He's very unique," Garry said. "Carter plays hard, all the time. Success, failure, setbacks, whatever it be, he covers a lot of ground in the infield, and he gets after everything. It's like a linebacker playing shortstop. He really is aggressive."

To Shook, that kind of approach just makes sense -- both on defense and at the plate.

"When the ball's coming to me, I get it at the earliest point as possible, because you have a lot more time to throw the runner out at first," Shook said. "I try to get a good pitch early. I don't like getting two-strike counts."

Coach Garry says one of Shook's talents is his willingness to embrace failure.

"Baseball is structured so much around failure, that if you get a kid that enjoys the aggressive side of it, it's always easy to correct, it's always easy to correct aggressiveness," Garry said. "He's an optimist, he gets after things, he has experienced failure, and he knows the best way to fix it is to keep going hard."

So what's the lesson there? What's that say about Shook and his secret to success? That if you're going to do something, go all out. It's worked for him.

"Each person has their own role, so like I'm a lot more quiet, there's a lot more vocal guys. I usually just lead by example and confidence," Shook said.

His approach speaks for itself.