A Grizzly Gamer

When the lights are the brightest and the stakes are the highest, the smallest person on the diamond has stood tall for four seasons as a leader for the nationally ranked Georgia Gwinnett College baseball team.

And, on most occasions, his uniform is covered in dirt after diving to field plays and making head-first slides on stolen bases or scoring plays at home plate. 

Braxton Meguiar is definitely a gamer as one of only two four-year starters in the program’s 13-year history, playing in 203 of a possible 205 games, with 201 starting assignments. (The school records are 231 games and 207 starts.) 

The 5-foot-6 NAIA Preseason All-American second baseman already has school marks for hits (278) – topping Marcus McCorkle, GGC’s only other historical four-year starter – along with runs scored (277) and doubles (56), while closing in on the records for at-bats (708), walks (165) and stolen bases (112). He has a .393 career batting average.

Those contributions have helped the Grizzlies make three Avista NAIA World Series appearances, capture three Continental Athletic Conference titles, and have a 167-36 record (.822 winning percentage).

That’s why it’s not surprising to hear Head Coach Jeremy Sheetinger state, “Our success is directly tied to the example Braxton sets on the field and in the locker room.”

Hitting from the second position in the team’s batting order, Meguiar has earned a reputation as delivering in the clutch.

Earlier this spring, the senior’s double completed an eighth-inning rally as GGC scored 10 runs to come back from a 12-3 deficit for a dramatic victory against Indiana Wesleyan University at the Grizzly Baseball Complex. 

For his part, Meguiar says, “I want people to say ‘Who is that little second baseman covered in dirt who we haven’t been able to get out today?’ That’s the stuff I live for. If my uniform isn’t dirty, then I didn’t play hard enough (in the game).”

Through 23 games this season, Meguiar is hitting .375, scored a team-high 31 runs and driven in an additional 21 runs. He has successfully stolen 14 bases in 15 attempts.

This followed a 2024 season in which he earned second NAIA All-America team honors and was the Most Valuable Player of the CAC Championship Tournament. He had a career-best .416 average, scored 90 runs and hit three homers during the 2023 season. 

“There are probably 50 games during his career where Braxton has made an impact on a game with an at bat, walk, base hit, and hustle-play double,” Sheetinger said. “He has a knack for being in the moment and knows how to show up. There is not an ounce of selfishness in him. Everything is about helping us win,” said his coach.

Meguiar’s first hit as a Grizzly came in his first at-bat during GGC’s 2022 Opening Day. A couple weeks later, he delivered the game-tying double in the ninth inning in an extra-inning team victory.

The Auburn, Kentucky, native committed to the program just two days after Christmas in 2021 – a late present for Sheetinger after the program’s first NAIA national championship campaign.

“We got through fall practice (in 2021 for the 2022 season) and realized that we were going to be an infielder short. I reached out to Wabash Valley Junior College (Illinois) Head Coach Rob Fournier, who suggested that I take a good look at Braxton,” the coach recalls. “I immediately reached out to him and found out that his dad is a friend with one of my best friends (from Kentucky). I’ve known the Meguiar family name for a long time, and it was an easy conversation to bring him in. He made an impact right away.”

Later, Sheetinger adds, “We recruited him to come in and play, but we didn’t hand him the job. He earned it. He’s not afraid to lead.”

Those leadership qualities for Meguiar come from being the son of a high school baseball coach in Logan County, Kentucky. Both of his parents were athletes at NAIA’s Campbellsville University (father, Ethan, played baseball; mother, Nicole, played basketball). Braxton appreciates the daily grind of practicing and playing games in the spring sport.

These moments are even more special as the season hits its halfway point, with the Grizzlies ranking No. 4 in the latest NAIA national poll.  

“My senior year is going exactly how it is supposed to go because it has already been written. I just have to live out the pages in the book. I’m enjoying every second of it and taking nothing for granted,” Meguiar says.

GGC returns home to play Middle Georgia State University on Friday, March 14, with a single nine-inning game scheduled at 5 p.m. The two teams will then have a doubleheader in Cochran, Georgia, on Saturday, March 15, starting at 2 p.m.