It didn’t take long for Faith Lutheran baseball coach Dave Anderson to realize that incoming freshman Rookie Shepard, before officially playing a high school game, was going to be a special player.

As part of an intersquad offseason scrimmage, the freshmen were assigned to the team with underclassmen. Anderson noticed that Shepard didn’t look too enthused to be with the younger players.

“He didn’t handle it poorly, but his body language looked a little disappointed,” Anderson said. “I just said, ‘Hey, if this isn’t where you’re supposed to be, just show me.’ And he goes, ‘Alright.’”

And Shepard’s play proved his point.

“After three innings, I got to get that guy out of there, he’s going to kill somebody,” Anderson said of the speed in which Shepard plays the game.

Shepard hasn’t stopped. The senior shortstop is the state’s top hitter in Class 5A, batting with a .537 average, and leads the Crusaders with 44 hits and 33 runs scored.…