Editor’s note: Top Cat is a weekly series taking an in-depth look at Eastern’s top athlete from the previous week. Winners are selected just once. Selections are made by The Daily Eastern News sports staff.

Transfer student and senior outfielder Kirk Walters has really fit in well with the Eastern baseball team.

Walters transferred to Eastern in 2001 after playing at Olney Central Community College. Walters started to play for Eastern in 2002.

Walters said he really admires his Olney Central head coach Dennis Conley. Conley said Walters was a pleasure to coach for two years, and he is always glad to see his guys go on and play at a higher level.

At Olney Central Walters was an All-American, and won the Great Rivers Athletic Conference his freshman year. He holds the OCC records for season batting average (.472 as a sophomore), season RBIs (76) and career RBIs (123).

Walters was also named Most Valuable Player of the GRAC and all-region before he left for Eastern.

“I think Kirk is a kid that is a very talented individual that has good athletic skills,” Conley said. “Walters is going to control his own destiny. If he stays focused, he will put up high numbers.”

Other players from Olney Central that played with Walters have transferred to Eastern as well.

Conley said senior infielder Aaron Shelbourne, junior infielder Kyle Haines and senior pitcher Micah Gray are all presently playing at Eastern.

“We have had several guys play up there (Eastern) and it is good to have friends to play with when you go to another school,” Conley said.

Another strong influence in Walters’ life is his father Thomas Walters.

The elder Walters said he has always tried to encourage his son and tell him to stay positive.

“The harder you work, the more positive you are, the better things work out,” he said.

Thomas said a lot of his son’s motivation for sports came from Kirk’s older brother, who was always active in sports. Kirk always participated with his brother despite the three-year difference between the two boys.

“He also played with the older kids and that just made him that much better because he had to play that much harder to keep up with them,” Thomas said.

Kirk made his presence known most recently at game one of Eastern’s doubleheader against Saint Xavier University when he finally broke out of his slump.

Kirk had a career-high four hits out of his five times at bat. He also scored two runs for Eastern and had four RBIs. Kirk Walters has started all 14 games he has played this season.

His batting average as of March 25 was .277.

Kirk also lined a single to left field scoring senior catcher Bret Pignatiello to win the first game for Eastern.

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Kirk is also 100 percent from the field.

At Tuesday’s game against Saint Louis, Kirk tied his career-high four hits out of five at bats.

He also scored two runs and had one RBI. Head coach Jim Schmitz said Kirk has struggled through a back injury all of last year and has been playing through a lot of pain this year as well as he tries to rehabilitate it.

Thomas Walters said Kirk has just learned to live with the back pain and he has learned to work around it.

“He does not overdo it, but he still pushes it to the limit,” he said.

“It takes a lot of pressure off of Pignatiello, and people have so much confidence in him — he is our RBI guy,” Schmitz said.

Schmitz said everyone understands on the team what Kirk is going through with his injury and he is a leader.