Ridgeland baseball team ready to get back to basics
After finishing tied for fourth place in Region 6-AAAA a year ago, but missing out on making the state playoffs on a headto-head tiebreaker, Panthers head coach Scott Harden is stressing a return to the basics this season.
“We’re getting back to the blue collar way around here,” he explained. “We’re from a blue color community and we kind of got complacent last year. This year were getting back to hard work and getting back to what it takes to have a good season and get ourselves in the playoffs.”
Ridgeland went 6-12 in region play a season ago, but seven of those 12 losses came by three runs or less, including three one-run losses. Had the Panthers just won one of those onerun games, they would have earned a spot in the state playoffs.
But Harden is hoping that another year’s seasoning will better prepare this year’s team for the challenges to come when region play begins.
“We return nearly all of our starters and most of our pitchers,” Harden added. “Most of our primary pitchers last year were sophomores and freshmen, so we should be better now that we have a couple of years of varsity experience under our belts.”
Ridgeland will still be something of a youthful team in 2018 as it will take the field with just four seniors, three of which will see time on the mound.
Ellis Johnson, he of the submarine delivery, will be in the starting rotation and will also be used in middle relief. Utility player Dylan Wooten is a utility player that will also pitch. He led the team in hitting a season ago (.431), adding seven doubles, a triple and 19 RBIs to earn honorable mention AllState honors in Class 4A from Georgia Dugout Preview.
Jacob Stephens is another infield utility guy that will work some innings on the hill, while Jordan Tucker, who recently signed to play football at Shorter University, has added size and strength and will provide the Panthers with power at the third base spot.
The Panthers have a large junior class, including many players who saw varsity innings a year ago.
The class is led by
significant action a year ago in outfielder Joseph Heinrich and middle infielder Giovanni Barroso. The addition to the class is Cameron Stephens, a move-in from Colorado, who will likely see most of his action on the mound.
The varsity roster will be rounded out by a quartet of sophomores. Zach Coots will play first base and pitch, while transfer Riley Mosier will add depth to the Warriors’ pitching staff. Carson McCammon will likely be the team’s backup catcher, while newcomer Nelson Chapman is in his first year with the LFO program and has impressed the coaches with his hustle.
Burch said he is also excited about the potential in a large freshman class that he called “very athletic” and said was eager and willing to work hard.
“We hope that our strength will ultimately be mental toughness,” he explained. “But as far as the field goes, we’ll be pretty strong defensively and I think we’ll be very scrappy on the bases and at the plate.”
Burch said it was on the mound where it would take a collective effort in order to help win games.
“We may have to string together enough arms to get outs,” he continued. “We may not have one or two really dominant arms, but we’ve got six, seven or eight people that could all come in and get us three outs and that’s the approach we have to have. If someone steps up to become that number one guy, that will be great. But if not, we still feel like we can win games stringing three or four pitchers together.
“Everybody just has to do their job and execute what we’re asking them to do. We preach excellence - every rep, every day - and we want that ingrained in their brains.
“We can’t take one rep off in batting practice or one rep off hitting fungos if we’re going to beat people. If we can push that, we’ll be fine.”