Rockmart’s baseball team is looking to win big this year.
The Rockmart Yellow Jackets baseball team is looking to win big this year, and have some early season tests to get them on the right track at the start.
“We had some really nice weather here, and it was nice and warm, but its gotten cold again. So baseball season is back,” said head coach Kenny Yanzetich over the weekend as the team played in an intersquad game together in preparation for the start of the season against Darlington at home in an opening scrimmage.
He said the team, with plenty of veterans back onto the squad for the year, is through tryouts and cuts and though some of the players remain in basketball or wrestling for the time being, there’s time to get into the swing of things.
Especially since the team has gone from 6-16 in 2015 to 20-9 overall in 2016, with a berth in the state championships that ended in the first round with some disappointment.
“The work ethic carried over, and we had a great offseason in the weight room,” Yanzetich said. “Many of our guys put on 15 pounds of muscle. We have guys getting stronger. That’s really set the tone of where we’re at. And we only have four seniors now, so we’re young and we’re pretty talented.”
Though Yanzetich is looking for another good year with his squad, he said there are upcoming challenges the Jackets face on the ball field.
Early on in the season, Rockmart will be taking on Cedartown, ranked high in the state after last year’s run in the Class AAAA play- offs and Gordon Lee, ranked second after their successful season.
“I did that for a purpose,” he said. “We got knocked out in the first round last year, and I don’t think we handled that very well as far as some of the things that went on in that series.”
By putting pressure games on the schedule early on, Yanzetich is hoping his team will “get acclimated and go from there” in building up a winning record.
“We’re carrying the No. 9 ranking in double A going in, so we know we’re going to have a target on our back,” he said. “But it’s all about that region schedule, and trying to win the region and be the one seed going into the playoffs.”
They start off with scrimmage play against Darlington this afternoon at Rockmart High School at 5:30 p.m.