Columbia Academy senior pitcher Reed Duncan has committed to continue his baseball career at Louisiana Tech, highlighting his incredible rise to becoming one of the most-feared high octane arms in the state.
Going into his junior season, Columbia Academy’s Reed Duncan had asserted himself as one of the school’s top football players, but his prowess on the baseball diamond had not yet blossomed at the varsity level. That changed in a hurry as the 6-foot-3 righty became a bulldog on the mound, throwing more than 90 mph with a wicked breaking ball — a combination that often had batters second guessing whether they should have just stayed in bed.
Cougars head coach Keith Stanley said Duncan staying healthy was a big part of his rise but so was his mindset and approach to getting better.
“He killed it in the offseason, working out. He got bigger and stronger. His mentality and his mindset as an athlete, not just baseball but an athlete in general, it shifted for him and you could tell he was a different human in all three sports his junior year,” the veteran coach explained. “Baseball wise, the mindset of getting folks out, throwing this pitch when you need to throw this pitch, getting folks out when you need to get this guy out. That's the biggest transformation I saw from him as a coach and it was really fun to watch him in the dugout.”
Duncan credited hard work, faith and the support of his brother, Tate, for helping make his Division I dream a reality.
“I just got to give all the credit to God. Obviously, I worked hard and He gave me the talent and ability to do that, but all credit to Him, for sure,” Duncan said.
Tate, who starred for the Cougars in multiple sports and won state titles in baseball and basketball, is the strength and conditioning coach at Adams Christian and has been working with Duncan on his diet and strength training while writing his throwing programs. Stanley said the results of the brothers working together were immense and led to Duncan becoming a force on the mound.
“He probably put on at least 15, 20 pounds between one season to another. That jumped his velo up. Him and his brother are just working tirelessly on mechanics and throwing and weights, so the velo boost made the fastball play a little better and he developed the slider as a secondary pitch that might be one of the better sliders in the South,” Stanley explained. “They overlay off each other really well when it comes into the zone. When you throw at that kind of velocity with a slider that moves like his, it's a deadly combo. I think he's working on a third pitch now. If he develops a third pitch, another change up, that's just going to make him even better. He's got another bright season ahead of him.”
Stanley added Duncan throws his slider like a fastball — just with a different grip — which allows him to throw it harder than the vast majority of breaking balls in high school, especially ones with two-plane movement.
“At the high school level, you don't typically see a low 80s mile an hour slider,” Stanley said. “He throws it really hard and with his arm slot and how hard he throws it, it matches with the fastball really well. It can be deceptive to hitters.”
Duncan grew from 6-foot-1 and 190 pounds ahead of his junior year to 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds to begin his senior year and has even more room to grow. Stanley said it wouldn’t surprise him at all if Duncan ended up throwing in the upper 90s in college with the potential to reach triple digits.
“He’s a freak. He's a freak of nature with his body and the way he moves. The biggest thing a lot of people don't see is how he takes care of his body. He's a smart kid and his brother graduated with a kinesiology degree, so his brother kind of feeds him some stuff too. His health, what he puts in his body, what he puts out of his body, and then how he takes care of it is another reason why he's at the stage he's at. I can see him throwing really hard one day,” Stanley said. “I don't think there's really a ceiling on him. That's the scary and fun part — scary for other people, but fun for us. I think he has a lot of untapped potential still. It's just going to keep getting better and better the harder he works. He’s on a protein-based diet, and I don't think I've ever seen him put a liquid in his body that was not water. It's incredible how he takes care of his body.”
At the prestigious Area Code Games in California, the three-sport athlete topped out at 94 mph and said he is looking forward to focusing solely on baseball when he arrives in Ruston, La. for the first time in his life.
Duncan, who recently had surgery on his hand but expects to return to action on the gridiron soon, said the decision was driven by his connection with the Bulldogs’ coaching staff and the program’s winning tradition.
“It just felt like home. They have a good coaching staff, good culture. Obviously, they win a lot, but I really liked it over there,” he said. “I love the pitching coach and head coach, and it’s like home.”
On top of offers from junior colleges throughout the state, Duncan also had Division I offers from Memphis and Southeastern (La.). With his college choice out of the way, the right-hander is eager to focus solely on his senior season.
“It’s big,” he said of committing before baseball season arrives in the spring. “I can just go out there and play and not have to worry about if I got somewhere to go or not, so big time.”
Columbia Academy reached the state championship last season and was one game away from reaching state in 2024, and Duncan hopes to help lead the Cougars to a state championship in his final high school season.
“We came up short last year but to finally punch it in this year would be awesome,” he said.
La Tech has been a premier program on the diamond both in Conference USA and on the national stage, reaching the NCAA Regionals four times in the past 10 seasons. The Bulldogs have played a ton of premier programs throughout the years as well, including LSU, Mississippi State, Ole Miss, Southern Miss and more, and Duncan said he’s excited for the opportunity and to potentially play against his current teammates Logan Buckley at USM and Trent Buckley at Ole Miss.
Duncan is the son of Jeff and Carmen Duncan.
