Pitcher Brooks emerges for SU

• By JOSEPH SCHIEFELBEIN
• Advocate sportswriter
• Published: May 6, 2008 - Page: 1C - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Everything is working out for Southern junior pitcher Sherrard Brooks these days, right here at the intersection of persistence and happenstance.

Brooks (6-1, 4.43 ERA) has become the Sunday ace, winning all four of his Western Division starts since joining the weekend rotation.

“You just persevere,” Brooks said. “I started out as one of the worst pitchers (this season).”

How he got to this point is a bit of a tale, a lot of pieces fitting together.

First, there was his recruitment by former SU assistant Barrett Rey, now the head coach at Grambling.

Rather, first there was the recruitment of his brother, Michael, a pitcher, who would have come to Southern during the Rickie Weeks era but instead went to Texarkana College and then Southern Arkansas University.

Brooks visited SU nonetheless and remembered liking the place. Plus, SU coach Roger Cador back then made an impression on Brooks’ parents —Stevie, who welds on and repairs Army tanks after years working for UPS, and Elnita, a longtime high school secretary, enough so that getting the younger Brooks seemed like a natural enough fit.

A natural fit at least in getting to Baton Rouge from Texarkana, Ark.

Finding his rightful fit on the pitching staff took three seasons, though.

“He never complained,” Cador said. “This is what you have. He never made excuses. He just did what we asked him to do.

“I appreciate what he did.”

Brooks went 2-1 (with an 8.69 ERA) and started three times, making eight appearances in all, as a freshman and Rey working with the pitchers.

Last season, SU had plenty of starters and closers, and so Brooks worked in the bullpen. With Rey moving on to Grambling, the Jaguars also didn’t have a full-time pitching coach to provide advice and notice and counsel.