Generals

was an Under Armour and Perfect Game AllAmerican and helped USA Baseball’s U-18 team win a World Cup gold medal in Canada.

He went 9-3 a year ago, striking out 70 in 64 innings with a 2.40 ERA, while also hitting .339 with three homers and 41 RBIs. But it’s a high-90’s fastball with movement that has Wilcox projected to by some to be a possible first-round draft pick later this year.

But take Wilcox out of the equation and the Generals are still loaded.

Senior All-Region pitcher Tripp Church (an Augusta University signee) picked up seven wins and had a

2.26 ERA last season and the coaching staff is hopeful that senior Justin Morris (West Georgia) will be back in the rotation this spring. Heritage can call on a pair of standouts behind the dish in senior Bryce Bird and senior Alex Coulter (East Georgia State).

On the infield, senior utility player Jonathan Hickman (.368, seven doubles, two homers, 41 RBIs) was All-Region a year ago, while junior third baseman Brody Campbell (.400, 36 hits, 24 RBIs) was a second team selection. Hickman has also signed with East Georgia State.

Then in the outfield, Heritage can go to seniors Blake Bryan (Carson-Newman) and Lance Dockery (Cleveland State). Bryan hit .245 a year ago with

six doubles, one homer and 15 RBI’s, while Dockery batted .333 out of the leadoff spot with 10 doubles, 28 RBI’s, 51 runs scored and six homers, which tied the Generals’ single-season record.

But that’s still not all.

The rest of the senior class includes talented catcher/outfielder/first baseman Josh Gibson and utility player Luke Grant, a weapon on the basepaths, who could also see some innings on the mound.

Throw in three more junior pitchers in Nolan Letzgus, Dakota Bandy and Walker Spruiell, a junior outfielder in Aaron Colquitt and a back-up catcher and first baseman in sophomore Pete Padgett and it’s easy to see why the Generals are expected to challenge

for a second region title in the last three seasons.

However, Beagles said the 2018 version of the Generals can not afford to rest on the laurels of the 2017 version.

“Every year is a new team and this team is completely different than last year in a lot of ways,” he said. “We’re looking forward to this year, but we have to keep looking forward. We can’t look back.

“Everyone says we have a lot of experience coming back and that’s true. But what are we doing with that experience? We have to keep coming out here and pushing ourselves to get better every day. Baseball is a long season and it’s easy to look towards the end rather than at each day. We have to be able to do things each day better than we did the day before, so that daily stuff has to be our focus.”

Beagles said that so far, the team seems focused on the task at hand and he hopes that is a trend that will continue as the schedule pushes into the region portion of the schedule in early March and beyond.

“We have to go out there every day, keep looking forward and not be distracted by the things people are saying,” he added. “We’ve done a good job of so far of coming out and working hard. Hopefully we’ll continue to build on that so that eventually when we get to where we need to be, we’ll be able to accomplish some things that they want to accomplish.”