East Rowan’s Harrison Ailshie reacts after hitting a double in the playoffs. Photo Credit: Sean Meyers

 

By Mike London

Salisbury Post

SALISBURY — They tell the story with awe at East Rowan that as a youth league player Harrison Ailshie made a Mother’s Day promise to smack two home runs — one for his mom (Sara) and another for his grandmother (Linda Hendrickson) who was in the stands.

He kept that promise.

A lot of years have gone by since a grinning Ailshie circled the bases after Homer No. 2, but Ailshie has never stopped doing things that are normally beyond the powers of mortal men.

Ailshie is the 2025 Mark Norris Memorial Award winner after a special, two-way junior season that was capped by him being named South Piedmont Conference Player of the Year by the league’s coaches and 3A Player of the Year by the North Carolina Baseball Coaches Association. He batted .412 with six homers, 18 doubles and 30 RBIs for a 25-6 team. With 24 walks, his on-base percentage was .532. He was 9-1 on the mound with a 1.02 ERA and 117 strikeouts in 75.2 innings.

West Rowan had an excellent lineup with three All-State players, but Ailshie won twice against West. Those victories enabled the Mustangs to tie the Falcons for first place in the South Piedmont Conference standings and get the No. 1 seed for the state playoffs.

“We didn’t have the power or the experience in the lineup that we had when we won state in 2024,” Hatley said. “But Krys Hernandez getting off to a great start this season as our lead-off batter really helped Harrison. That made it harder to pitch around Harrison in the 2 hole, and when Harrison got his opportunities, he usually came through.”

At 18, Ailshie, a rising senior, is almost too good to be true, a terrific lefty hitter for the Mustangs, who can drive the ball with exciting power, while still maintaining high contact rates. He’s also a lefty pitcher, who can dominate on the mound once a week.

He’s not Vance Honeycutt fast, but he runs smoothly and swiftly for a 6-foot-1, 185-pounder who can still add a lot of muscle to an athletic frame. His throws from the outfield are close to 90 mph, and he was a strong center fielder as a junior after playing left field as a sophomore and freshman.

“He’s been phenomenal for us,” East head coach Brett Hatley said. “A great human being and a great teammate, but also a competitor who is a bulldog whenever he gets on the mound. He’s talented, and he’s coachable, and he works very hard at baseball. He wants to be great.”

Life was easier for Ailshie as a sophomore, when he took a lot of opponents by surprise. He was just part of the state-championship lineup that had Cobb Hightower breaking state records for runs scored and McCall Henderson breaking county RBI records.

Ailshie had a 10/10 junior season, 10 homers and 10 pitching wins. High school seasons are relatively short, so no one had accomplished that feat in Rowan County in this century. The homers are the tougher part of that double-double. He was the first Mustang to launch 10 in a season since 1999.

“The pitching wins were the big surprise for me,” Ailshie said. “I didn’t expect anything like that. I pitched one game as a freshman, and that was it. But we worked to be a good pitching staff all fall and winter with our pitching coach (Ethan Free).”

Ailshie had to adjust as a junior, with so many of East’s big sticks graduating, but he handled it well. He was patient. He took the walks and didn’t the miss fastballs when he got one he could drive.

“It wasn’t like pitchers wouldn’t throw me a strike, but they didn’t throw me many fastballs that were in the strike zone,” Ailshie said. “Lots more breaking balls and changeups than I saw my sophomore year.”

Ailshie is considered an advanced hitter by all talent evaluators and is rated as one of the state’s top high school prospects in the Class of 2026. His swing is a work of art, a quick and lethal whip through the strike zone.

College baseball is going to be a fine option for Ailshie if he’s not drafted early next year. He committed to the University of North Carolina last fall, and he should be outstanding for the Tar Heels if he winds up taking that route.

UNC recruited him as an outfielder, but his pitching velocity has continued to increase since he committed. He’s throwing some 90s and 91s now, with another year of high school still ahead of him, so a two-way future isn’t out of the question even at the ACC level.

The best team moment of Ailshie’s high school career so far was being named MVP of the 3A State Championships, even on a squad that included Hightower, a third-round pick by San Diego last summer. Ailshie batted .500 in the state playoffs with four homers and 18 RBIs in nine games. He had a grand slam and nine RBIs in the intense, three-game regional championship series with Tuscola.

As far as individual shining moments, Ailshie’s favorite occurred in the second round of this year’s 3A state playoffs.

Carson’s Maverick Walters is left-handed, confident and throws hard, and with Carson leading 1-0 going to the bottom of the seventh, he threw Ailshie a fastball over the plate. The game was tied at 1-all a few seconds later. Ailshie launched a no-doubter at Staton Field, and that blast sparked the Mustangs to a 2-1 victory.

Ailshie’s father is Blaine Ailshie who played Little League baseball as a teammate of Brian Hatley, Coach Hatley’s talented older brother who played for Catawba.

Ailshie peaked in baseball early as a player, but he proved to be a quality coach, and he helped guide his son’s youth teams.

“I can remember when Harrison was playing machine pitch, 8 years old, and he hit four home runs in a row,” Blaine Ailshie said. “That was when I started thinking he had a chance to be a really good player.”

Some 8-year-old phenoms flame out by the time they’re 12. Some 12-year-old superstars become role players by the time they’re 16. But Ailshie has remained on an upward trajectory. There is almost no limit to what he might do in the game, but he manages to stay humble.

“I remember when I first started playing with East Rowan Diamond Sports when I was 5, and I was pretty terrible,” Ailshie said. “But I did like the game a lot. I’ve just kept working at it.”