The 2022-23 baseball roster at Marian University will feature two players from Jackson County — Seymour’s Aden Burnside and Brownstown Central’s Ethan Davis.

Despite being at different high schools, Burnside and Davis played on the same travel team. Burnside committed first, and last summer when Marian came to watch Burnside play, they also got to see Davis.

It wasn’t long until Davis sent them his recruitment video and transcript, and messages between both parties started to take place.

“From there, whenever I went up there for my visit, it was perfect,” Davis said. “It’s not too far away from home. I fell in love with the campus as soon as I stepped on it, the training facilities and basically everything about the school.”

Davis officially committed to Marian at the end of November in 2021. He and Burnside were both the top pitchers at their respective schools, and now, they get to share time on the mound at the next level.

“It is pretty nice having somebody, especially since we’re pretty close,” Davis said of Burnside. “We’ve played against each other all our lives, and playing together (for travel) was nice, and doing it again in college will be a good experience.”

Playing college baseball was something Davis said he always wanted to do, and by the end of his freshman season, he really began to work toward that goal.

Davis’ sophomore season was canceled due to COVID-19, but during his junior season, he made a change that felt best benefited his abilities on the mound. Davis stopped hitting in the lineup so he could solely work on his pitching skills.

“The amount of time we had to spend at fall and winter workouts, just putting in the extra time helped my game,” he said. “Junior year, I didn’t hit at all in high school just so I could focus on pitching in practices and workouts and just focus on that because that’s what I wanted to do in college.”

It worked out to his benefit, too.

Davis did end up batting a couple of times his senior season this past spring. In his 24 at-bats, Davis hit .333 with eight hits and nine RBI. He made The Tribune’s all-county baseball team with a 2.15 ERA that led to a 6-2 record with 65 strikeouts.

Davis throws a regular four-seam fastball, a curveball and a sinker, which became his new favorite pitch that he worked on with assistant coach Austin Green.

“Now that I’ve gotten stronger, the ball spins more, and that has definitely been my go-to pitch over the past couple years,” Davis said of his sinker.

Davis is one of two senior players from Brownstown’s team that is going to play baseball collegiately. The other is Jake Pauley, who was the catcher every time Davis pitched. Pauley is going to play at College of DuPage.

“It’s definitely awesome,” Davis said. “Through the four years of high school, he made me better as a player. Having somebody to trust behind the plate, you could throw whatever pitch you wanted. He’s a great player.”

When talking with the Marian coaches, the Knights struggled with pitching this past year, so Davis and Burnside will both get early opportunities during their freshman campaigns to contribute on the mound.

This summer Davis is working out, trying to get stronger and prepared for his first collegiate season. He will move up to Marian in the middle of August.

“It’s very exciting,” Davis said. “Since it was a dream since I was little, it’s crazy that it’s already here.”