Berrien’s Larry Greene runs to third on a base hit during a game against Appling County earlier this season at Dr. Frank Carter Field in Nashville.

Larry Greene takes the field for the Berrien Rebels at Dr. Frank Carter Field and looks like a man standing amongst boys.

At 6-foot-1, 230 pounds and chiseled, he doesn’t look like he fits in at a high school game. But soon enough, he’ll be where it looks like he belongs: with professionals.

Greene, the Rebels’ left-handed power hitter, is on the fast track to pro baseball. The senior is eating high school pitchers alive, has already made the rounds at all-star games across the country and puts on a regular show for scouts by pounding out home runs in batting practice.

The Nashville lifer will soon leave Berrien County, as he is projected to be drafted in the first or second round of the Major League Baseball draft in June.

“(The scouts) tell me I have the power and strength and the ability to run,” Greene said. “They tell me if I keep going, then I’ll be just fine.”

It’s always been that way for Greene. He grew up in Berrien playing rec ball, and caught the eye of Rebels head coach Doug Nix when he was seven.

“He’s always been a big strong kid,” said Nix, who worked with Greene in camps growing up.

By the summer of Greene’s eighth grade year, he was practicing with the Rebels, and as a freshman, he bypassed the JV team and started for the varsity.

It’s been a fun ride for the Rebels ever since. Last year, Greene put the team on his back and set the school record by using his power to blast 15 home runs. He hit three home runs against Toombs County in the first round of the playoffs, including a shot that helped the Rebels win the series.

This season, he’s already up to eight home runs and poised to break his own record, despite frequently being pitched away from. He said his goal is to get to 20 homers.

“He’s pretty good at everything,” Nix said. “He has a lot of tools. His mental approach is great. He’s patient at the plate. He’s everything you want in a player. I really think he’ll be a big time player in the Major Leagues.”

Scouts agree.

The web site Baseball Rumor Mill says Greene “has as much physical power as any kid in America.” Baseballclearinghouse.net says he was “a must see for scouts over the last two years” after he put on a show for scouts in the 17U WWBA Perfect Game at East Cobb as a sophomore.

Greene is following in the footsteps of Kaleb Cowart, the former Cook star who also played summer ball in the famous East Cobb program. Like Cowart, Greene is also an AFLAC All-American and went to San Diego last summer to play in the AFLAC All-American game at Petco Park with many of the other top rising high school seniors in the country.

“That was fun,” Greene said. “It was wild. I want to do a whole lot more of that.

“It was a blessing for me and my family to have the opportunity to leave and go play ball.”

Cowart was the Gatorade National Player of the Year and was selected 18th overall by the Los Angeles Angels last summer. The two played each other twice a year in the Cook-Berrien rivalry and got to know each other from other baseball endeavors.

“We talk all the time,” Greene said. “He’s a good friend. He helps me out. He tells me not to worry about the draft too much, that it’ll come.”

But Cowart is gone from South Georgia. Now it’s Greene’s turn in the spotlight. He signed a letter of intent to play at Chipola College in Marianna, Fla. earlier this year, but he has every intention of signing with a Major League organization when drafted.

“I’m set on going in the draft,” Greene said.

If for some reason he doesn’t sign and goes to Chipola, he could come out after one year, unlike if he went to an NCAA Division I school, where he’d have to wait three years to be draft eligible again.

Chipola is also special to Greene because it’s the school he picked out with his mother Denise, who passed away right after Christmas.

 “It’s been hard,” Greene said. “I’ve played good. She’s watching me, so I know I’m OK.”

Greene is being looked after by his father and grandmother. He said the draft process for them is overwhelming, and they’ve joked with him to hurry up and graduate so he can be drafted.

Despite all the hype and his celebrity status, Nix said Greene fits right in with the Rebels, who have also been like his family.

In a way, Greene is returning the favor to his teammates. Some scouts who have come to watch Greene in batting practice and in games have gotten a look at other players and have made phone calls to colleges about Greene’s teammates.

“He’s just one of the guys,” Nix said. “He just happens to have a lot of God-given ability. He’s a hard worker. We try to treat him like everybody else. He doesn’t expect anything special or different. But it helps when you have one that’s that talented. He’s a difference maker.

“I wish we had eight more like him. He’s fun to coach. He’s a good kid. He always has a big smile on his face and is easy going. He’s just a good kid who’s fun to be around.”

For a while, Greene was a multiple sport athlete at Berrien. One look at him and you’d understand why a football coach would salivate about having him on the roster. He did play football for the Rebels, and Alabama even wanted him to eventually play for the Crimson Tide.

However, Greene broke his ankle his junior year and Nix told then-head coach Ryan Branch that he might not play football any more. He didn’t.

“It was a big blow to the football team, but everyone understood the opportunity he would have with baseball,” Nix said. “He’s a baseball player first that played football and basketball.”

Added Greene, “I just love the game (of baseball) more. To me, there’s more to it. It’s more interesting to me than football.”

Baseball has always been Greene’s game, and it looks like it will be that way for a long time.