Jackie Robinson Showcase: E.E. Smith baseball’s Draven Morales set to make history

Draven Morales doesn’t like softball.

She’s a baseball player.

“That’s my heart, that’s what I’ve been doing my whole life,” said Morales, a sophomore at E.E. Smith High School.

Morales arrived in Fayetteville from Puerto Rico last September with hopes of joining the Golden Bulls on the baseball field. So, she asked E.E. Smith athletics director Darrell Purcell if it would be OK.

“I’ve been playing baseball my whole life. In my native country, Puerto Rico, I wasn’t really able to find teams that actually allowed me to play baseball,” Morales said.

“That was a really hard time for me because that was my passion. It still is. I came to the United States in September and saw they had a baseball team here like, ‘Oh, maybe I will be able to play.’ ”

Jose Crespo, Morales’ father and an assistant coach for the Golden Bulls, was determined to help his daughter fulfill her dream.

“I came out here because my daughter wanted to play baseball,” Crespo said.

“It was a little controversial at first because she was supposed to be playing softball. She decided she wanted to play baseball. She doesn’t like softball.”

After Purcell made a few calls and “did everything that had to be done,” Morales received the news she wanted to hear. She was going to be allowed to join the baseball team.

“Putting my passion on this field, I just want to inspire. I just want to be someone’s inspiration,” she said.

“I just wanted the girls at the school to see and say, ‘Oh, she’s a girl and she’s on the male’s team.’ Maybe I can do something that can empower them. I want to be somebody, I want to make history. That’s what I’m here for; it’s my history.”

Now, Morales is set to make history Thursday as the first female to play in an organized game at Segra Stadium, which opened in 2019 as home of the minor league baseball’s Fayetteville Woodpeckers.

“That’s just … more than an accomplishment,” she said.

“That’s a dream. Making history in something that I love, something that I have a passion for, it’s just awesome. It’s really meaningful to me.”

Morales and the Golden Bulls will take the field at 1 p.m. Thursday to play Westover in the first game of the inaugural Jackie Robinson Showcase.

“We consider each other a brotherhood and a sisterhood,” said first-year coach David Randolph.

“Draven told us at practice (recently) that she really enjoyed the season because she felt like she had a group of brothers. It’s like a bond that we’ve shared this season, even though we had our ups and downs with wins and losses.”

Randolph returns home

Like Morales, David Randolph has always had a passion for baseball.

That love for the game brought Randolph, a 2000 graduate of Smith, back to his alma mater.

“I just wanted to see the program get back running. I think they had a two-year hiatus, so we didn’t even really have a team and I wanted to start a program,” said Randolph, who teaches at Westover Middle School.

“This year, you can tell by the record, we’re focused on starting a program and getting the boys back to wanting to play baseball. The morale is still up and that’s what the goal was this year – chip away at some things and start off small. If we can be competitive, that’s the start.”

Smith has won two or fewer games in 12 of the last 14 seasons, but Randolph is determined to get the program trending in the right direction.

Despite a losing record in 2022, Randolph has seen signs of growth. The Golden Bulls don't have a senior on their roster and they had enough players to field a JV squad.

“I’m really excited for the kids and the school. For E.E. Smith to have a baseball team, period, is a win,” he said.

“Word of mouth, getting it out there and making sure you have a rapport with the kids, you have to build that relationship with these guys.”

Randolph and the Golden Bulls recently made the trip to Segra Stadium for a Woodpeckers’ game. For many of those players, it was their first professional baseball game.

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On Thursday, as part of the three-team showcase, which is free for fans, those same players will get to take the field for games of their own.

“We probably only had three or four guys that had actually been to a game. The rest of the guys had never been to a baseball game, so that was a great experience for us,” Randolph said.

“The reason we jumped aboard on this experience is, for one, we heard it was the Jackie Robinson Tournament. Being E.E. Smith, a traditionally African American school, and putting it with baseball, we had to jump on it.

"We’re excited that we’re invited to be a part of this. It’s a good look for the program and the kids in the community to see E.E. Smith baseball at Segra Stadium. … You get a chance to see somebody like you play inside Segra Stadium, from the same community and same neighborhood. It’s a big deal.”

First-time players ‘find the fun’

Brayjon Henderson and Amanti Owens are among Smith’s first-time baseball players.

A pair of juniors, Henderson and Owens had nothing but good things to say about their experience with the Golden Bulls.

“Honestly, baseball here at E.E. Smith is pretty fun. Building a program has actually been quite exciting,” Owens said.

“We come out to practice, have some fun and we’ll go to games fired up. Even though we might not do good in certain innings, we try to bring the energy and stay in the game.”

Even as the losses piled up this season, competition has been at the forefront of Smith’s rebuild with an emphasis on making practices enjoyable.

“What we did was make it something fun,” Owens said. “We basically had to find the fun in it.”

Henderson, a team captain, said the sport “always looked fun” to him, so he figured he would give it a shot.

“I’m not that good at batting yet, but it’s really cool and I like it,” Henderson said with a smile.

The showcase, which aligns with minor league baseball’s new initiative, “The Nine,” will allow Henderson and his teammates the chance to show off their progress on a bigger stage.

Named for the number Robinson wore during his only season playing in MiLB with the Triple-A Montreal Royals in 1946, The Nine aims to connect MiLB teams’ existing Black-community focused development efforts with new national programming and future special events in a coordinated and centralized campaign.

“I can definitely say that it’ll put (E.E. Smith) on the map. We haven’t had a team for a long time and we haven’t won much in a very long time,” Henderson said.

“Our record this year wasn’t all that great, but we did win. It can make more people come out and see us. … It sucks to lose, but the feeling of knowing that you’re still making progressions and still moving forward, I feel like it’s helping. It gives you hope for next year, a bunch of hope.”

Staff writer Rodd Baxley can be reached at rbaxley@fayobserver.com.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: E.E. Smith baseball in Jackie Robinson Showcase at Segra Stadium