New faces hit the field for the Jackets
There are plenty of new faces to go around with the Starkville High School baseball program in 2019.
Jack Perry and Caleb Stewart are back as regular every day players from last season, but there are several Yellow Jackets that will be getting their feet wet under new head coach Luke Adkins.
Adkins coaches his first game today, weather permuting, as SHS is scheduled to play Mooreville in the Houston Classic at 2:30 p.m.
He likes some of the young Jackets on the roster and he plans to use them early.
"Our sophomore class has several guys and are going to be big contributors for us," Adkins said. "You might even see some freshman and even an eighth grader for us. We've got a lot of talented kids all the way up in every grade level. The main thing is getting them some experience.
"As far as every day starting guys, we've got Jack Perry and Caleb Stewart. We've got some others that have experience. We're just going to throw them in the mix and see how it goes."
Adkins has already gotten a good look at what his team can do thanks to last Saturday's New Hope Jamboree. SHS had two four-inning scrimmages against West Point and Houston.
Getting to see the Jackets "in a true game atmosphere" was positive in Adkins' mind.
"I thought we played pretty good and pitched the ball really well," Adkins said. "We played pretty good defensively. We