Every week, a Louisville veteran addresses the rest of the team — the floor is his to use as he sees fit. Last Thursday, third-year sophomore catcher Henry Davis’ turn came up, and he brought a visual aid.

“He showed the last at-bat against Vanderbilt in the [2019] World Series, he popped up with the tying run at second,” Louisville coach Dan McDonnell said. “He showed it to the team and he said, ‘I went to the Cape Cod League, I got a concussion, I was home for a couple weeks. All I kept thinking about was my last at-bat in Omaha, my last at-bat in Omaha.’ He goes, ‘I played hard, I competed, but I knew that I could do more, and I had regret. I never wanted to feel that feeling again. From that moment on, I turned it up to a level that I’ve been at for the last couple years.’”

Few players in college baseball have performed this season at a level that compares with Davis, who is batting .382/.511/.671 with 11 home runs, 43 RBIs and a 29-18 BB-K mark through 41 games, all while playing strong defense at the most demanding position on the diamond. But Davis wasn’t talking about his stat line. He was talking about his level of intensity and commitment.

Davis grew up in Bedford, N.Y., and he said one of the reasons he chose to play for Louisville was the connection he formed with McDonnell, a native of nearby Rye Brook, N.Y. But that connection did not mean McDonnell went any easier on Davis when he was a freshman. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“He’s from my backyard, so I had some heart-to-hearts with him as a freshman,” McDonnell said. “I put some pressure on him: ‘Dude, you come from where I come from, you represent New York baseball. There’s a torch that you’re carrying; don’t make us look bad. You chose this program for obvious reasons — well, you’ve got an opportunity to do special things.’ Through those conversations and the way the season ended [in Omaha], man, he has been on a mission. He just talked to the guys about what all college kids do and all freshmen do and how common everybody is. He says, ‘Man, I am so committed to being uncommon. From that summer and the end of the freshman year, I know that I’ve been uncommon. I wish there were more players like me, I’m trying to get more players like me,’ and he’s not talking talent, he’s talking about commitment and preparation, how good or great he wants to be.”

For Davis, it started with an overhaul of his swing after his freshman year, when he hit a respectable .280/.345/.386 despite some glaring swing flaws. He first landed on the prospect radar during his prep days because of his promising catch-and-throw skills, and he had plenty of brute strength, but mechanically he had a long way to go as a hitter.

“You come from New York, there’s just a rawness there, that when he got here, he was all over the place,” McDonnell said. “The front foot was all over the place, he was very lungey, very jumpy, he probably got the nickname Silo, just hitting the ball straight up, like a lot of high school hitters. A little pull-crazy, a little hookish. What was impressive was how well he competed in his freshman year when he mechanically wasn’t in a good place.”

Davis worked hard with hitting coaches Eric Snider and Adam Vrable on improving his hitting mechanics, but he also studied up on the finer points of hitting and developed a much more mature approach heading into his sophomore year last spring.

“I think it’s just growing as a hitter, understanding how guys are gonna get me out and making adjustments,” Davis said. “Good hitters make adjustments between pitch to pitch, and not waiting for at-bats or games to go by, but doing what I need to do so when I step in the box I’m the most ready and prepared to compete I can be.”

That relentless drive to maximize his preparedness is a big part of what makes Davis special. McDonnell said when Davis and fellow All-American Alex Binelas arrived on campus as freshmen together, Binelas was ahead of him in a lot of developmental areas — in fact, Binelas was ahead of everybody.

“With Binelas it was like coaching a 25-year-old and he was 18, which was unusual. I remember sitting Binelas down and saying, ‘Hey man, you’re three steps ahead of these guys, and nobody wants to follow somebody who’s three steps ahead. How about taking a step back and letting these guys follow you?’ I remember him saying that fall of their sophomore year, ‘Coach, Henry Davis is there. Coach, Henry Davis is on board, man. This dude is all in.’”

Davis went on to race out to a .372/.481/.698 start in 43 at-bats before the season was canceled by the pandemic, and then he packed up and went back home to New York. But there was no way he was going to waste the down time. He viewed it as an opportunity to make himself better. What else could he do?

“First and foremost, I understood that nobody was gonna feel sorry for me,” Davis said. “Obviously it sucked having the year taken away, and things weren’t ideal with working out or whatnot, especially being in New York, but everybody was dealing with it. I chose not to make excuses; I worked out every day. Luckily I had my workout buddy with me in my little brother.”

Davis’ 17-year-old brother, Morgan, is a promising prospect in his own right, a 6-foot-5 pitcher who can run his heater into the 90s. And Morgan couldn’t have a better mentor than his older brother Henry, who relishes his role as a veteran leader for the Cardinals.

“I take a lot of pride in it because I always want to say the things I wish I heard as a freshman,” Davis said. “There are so many things it took me time to learn and it wasn’t always the easiest learning process, so if I can make it go a little bit smoother for them then I owe that to them.”

The combination of makeup, size, tools, production and defensive value give Davis a real chance to be the first college player drafted this summer. McDonnell thinks people sometimes overlook or even nitpick Davis’ defense because his bat is so good, but he’s fielding .994 with just two passed balls, and he’s thrown out 12 of 26 basestealers (46 percent).

“I think coming out of high school he was more known for the arm strength and the catcher skills,” McDonnell said. “I don’t want to say he’s done a 180, but sometimes the catcher skills aren’t getting enough respect because the bat has done so well. This guy’s not a stiff back there, I mean this is an athletic, intense, motivated guy with leadership skills. But he seems to get dogged a little bit because he’s trying to frame balls or he’s not catching a ball. He catches well, he’s athletic, he moves around, he’s got a bazooka for an arm. I think he’s staying behind the plate, he’s not going to third base or left field.”

“And he runs the bases. I’m not gonna say he’s as athletic as Will Smith, but it’s obviously a compliment to be mentioned in that category. Will was probably a little more athletic coming out of Louisville, but Henry’s a little farther along as a hitter.”

Davis leads all ACC hitters with a .389 average and a .508 OBP in conference play, to go along with seven homers and a .674 slugging percentage. And to McDonnell’s point, he’s even stolen 10 bases in 13 attempts on the season, showing just how well rounded a player he is, even though nobody will mistake him for a speed merchant. He runs well enough, and his baseball savvy helps him pick his spots effectively on the basepaths.

Davis is a complete player, and his future in pro ball is blindingly bright. But he’s focused on enjoying the rest of the ride at Louisville.

“These three years have flown by,” he said, “so I’m trying to take it all in, soak it in and enjoy this time I have, the memories I still have and plan to make the rest of this season.”

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