Pitching comes naturally for Visalia’s Pettyjohn family.
Adam Pettyjohn rode his left arm all the way to the majors, breaking into MLB with the Detroit Tigers in 2001.
Today, Pettyjohn’s son, Truett, has followed in his father’s footsteps.
Truett, a 2026 Redwood High School grad and starting pitcher, helped lead the Rangers to their fourth straight East Yosemite League baseball championship this season, with his dad serving as the team’s pitching coach. Redwood shared the 2026 EYL title with El Diamante and Monache.
Together, the father-and-son duo was also part of a Redwood squad that reached the 2026 Central Section Division I semifinals, the second time in four years head coach Dan Hydash’s ballclub came within one win of playing for a section crown.
The Rangers (20-11) capped off their outstanding season by winning at least 20 games for the fourth year in a row. Since the 2023 campaign, Redwood has won 88 games — the most for a Tulare County program during that stretch.
In 2026, with Truett on the mound and Adam tutoring Redwood’s pitchers, the Rangers surrendered just 3.6 runs per game.
“Adam, he does a tremendous job with the pitchers, just a lot of knowledge, a lot of experience,” said Hydash, who surpassed career win No. 300 in April. “Then having Truett come through, Truett’s been such a big part of what we’ve done over the past few years. It’s been really cool to see.”
Setting the standard
After a standout high school career in Exeter, Adam landed at Fresno State, playing for the late Bob Bennett in the 1990s.
He was drafted by the Tigers in the second round of the 1998 MLB June Amateur Draft.
Adam spent parts of two seasons in the MLB, debuting with the Tigers in 2001.
One of the highlights of his pro career came that same season when the left-hander struck out future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. in his MLB debut.
Adam accomplished that feat on July 16, 2001, at 24 years old, but then came a bout with ulcerative colitis — a type of inflammatory bowel disease — that forced him to sit out all of the 2002 season when he had to undergo a colectomy.
The Exeter grad faced that adversity head-on, though.
Adam returned the following year to pro ball and played five seasons in the minors before reaching the MLB for a second time in 2008 with the Cincinnati Reds.
In all, Adam appeared in 19 MLB games, 10 of them starts, and fired 41 strikeouts in 69 innings pitched. His fastball-slider combination made him an effective pitcher.
Adam’s battles on and off the diamond have helped Redwood maintain its status as one of the Central Section’s premier programs.
The Rangers are the only Division I-based program in Tulare County for the Central Section playoffs.
“Adam brings just a calm presence,” Hydash said. “A lot of experience. A lot of wisdom. I think his son is kind of molded in the same way, where you can’t tell if he just struck out the side or given up a three-run home run. He’s just that steady presence and calm demeanor. He’s just very neutral, which has been huge for everybody else to see. It rubs off on them.”
Truett gets to experience that at the game and at home.
“Growing up around him and everything, growing up around pitching with him, ever since I picked up a baseball when I was 5 years old, he’s just been my biggest aspiration and everything,” Truett said. “Watching his old highlights, even just his two years in the major leagues, which is so much longer than so many other baseball players can say. I really look up to him. Just growing up around him, he’s just had a lot of really good pitching tips for me, mentally, physically.
“He’s just made me the player that I am today, and kind of the person that I am today. He’s taught me to just stay humble and work hard and everything like that. Put 100% in everything that I do.”
Adam, who concluded year three as Redwood’s pitching coach in May, wouldn’t want it any other way.
“To be able to give back, to be able to share those experiences, to be able to share that knowledge with the younger kids, it’s just so gratifying,” Adam said. “That’s one thing that I really love to share is that they get quality coaching. … to be able to teach these guys about what makes them or what will make them successful at levels above will definitely make them successful here. It’s definitely worth it. I love being able to do it and love being able to share my experience with the kids.”
Continuing the family tradition
Truett is named after Christian singer-songwriter TobyMac’s son, who also has the same name.
In 2001, Adam’s wife, Dee, bought a TobyMac documentary, and when he heard the name Truett in the film, he knew right away what he was going to name his son.
Seven years later, Truett was born.
Adam has been with Truett for nearly every step of his son’s baseball career, from T-ball to travel to high school.
Truett, a right-hander, started playing competitively at 8. A year later, dad taught him to throw a change-up.
“I still throw it to this day,” Truett said. “It’s one of my top off-speed pitches now. That one for sure is the favorite pitch he’s taught me.”
Truett can still recall his first strikeout with his change-up.
“I do remember it was really nice having that secondary pitch at such a young age,” Truett said. “When everyone just had a fastball, it was really cool to have that second pitch. As I grew up, it’s become one of my best pitches because I’ve been throwing it ever since I was 9 years old.”
And it started with dad.
“When I introduced it to him, we were over at the park; more than anything, I just wanted him to throw with the grip, with those different fingers, and to just get used to playing catch with those different fingers,” Adam said. “Because the success of that pitch relies on comfort and confidence with those fingers, and to be able to throw it just like a fastball. He got pretty comfortable with it pretty quickly, so all the way through his 12-year-old years, that’s all we threw. Fastball. Change-up. Fastball. Change-up.”
Adam was Truett’s freshman head coach when he arrived at Redwood for the 2022-23 school year. The following season, Adam assumed the varsity pitching coach duties.
In 2024, Truett worked his way into the pitching rotation right away in his first varsity campaign, going 5-0 with a 1.16 ERA and a save. He threw 22 strikeouts in just 24 innings.
Truett culminated his Redwood career in May with 83 strikeouts, including tossing a single-season high 40 as a senior. He logged 96 2/3 innings during his time with the Rangers.
The 6-foot-5 Truett will extend his baseball career at College of the Sequoias.
“I am so unbelievably blessed,” Truett said. “I got coaching every day. I would say, picking from his mind, he’s always been one of the smartest baseball guys that I know. … He’s made me into the player I am today. I wouldn’t be here without him, just playing varsity baseball and everything, getting the chance to even play at the collegiate level.
“I am so unbelievably blessed and so unbelievably lucky to have him. I’ve been thankful from the start, just knowing I had him. Not everybody has a pitching coach, especially one at home. It’s been really nice.”
Leaving a mark
With Adam calling the pitches, Redwood hurler Carson Garcia turned in one of Tulare County’s top pitching performances of the season in May.
Garcia pitched a 12-0 shutout in five innings as the Rangers silenced defending Central Section Division I champion Centennial in a quarterfinal playoff victory on May 19.
Of the five innings Garcia pitched, four of them were 1-2-3 frames. He allowed just three hits, all singles in the fourth stanza, and threw three strikeouts. Garcia faced just 17 batters.
“He’s just been such an unbelievable coach to me and other people, too,” Truett said. “All my friends always say, ‘He’s such an unbelievable guy. He’s such an unbelievable person, too.’ He’s always learning the strengths of other players and learning to get the best out of them. He doesn’t really get on the players too much. He just knows how to coach and play the game the right way.”
That has left a mark with Redwood.
In three seasons as the team’s pitching coach, Adam helped mentor a Rangers club that has conceded an average of 3.2 runs per game from 2024-26.
During the 2024 and 2025 campaigns, Redwood gave up just 87 total runs in both seasons. The Rangers went 23-6 in 2024, followed by a 21-8 run the very next year.
What’s it like to have a dad who played in the MLB?
“It’s insane,” Truett said. “Just knowing, as I’ve grown up, knowing how hard it is to make the major leagues. It’s just unbelievable knowing my dad did that and everything. It’s a surreal feeling when I tell people, ‘My dad played in the bigs and everything.’ Everyone is always so shocked when I tell them and everything. ‘What? No way?’ “
It’s been a bittersweet 2026 for the Pettyjohn family.
The Pettyjohns concluded their Redwood careers with an EYL championship and memorable playoff run, but what the father-and-son duo will remember most are the shared memories in the bullpen, dugout and on the mound.
How did Adam separate his duties as a father and coach?
“Sometimes, you don’t,” Adam said. “I think ultimately, the dad hat trumps everything, you know. And so, I think just to be able to share those successes and those failures, because ultimately, when we’re out here, it’s just like dad and son playing catch. I don’t want anything but the best for him.
“To be able to succeed, take as much as he can, learn from his experiences, but do it in a mature way to where he doesn’t let the failures affect him too much and doesn’t get too high on the successes. Just try to take it for what it’s worth, learn, get better, and move on. But being dad out here, it’s the best thing ever.”
This article originally appeared on Visalia Times-Delta: Pitching is a way of life for Redwood baseball’s Pettyjohn family
Reporting by Vongni Yang, Visalia Times-Delta / Visalia Times-Delta
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Vongni Yang, Visalia Times-Delta | USA TODAY Network
