LFO counting on seniors in Holden’s second season
The LFO Warriors began the 2019 season with many newer and less-experienced faces on the field in their first season under first-time head coach Matt Holden.
Heavy graduation losses took a somewhat expected toll, but with nearly everyone returning this time around, Holden is optimistic that the still-somewhat youthful Warriors will be able to right the ship and be competitive in what is generally a tough region (6-AAA).
“So far, so good, so to speak,” Holden said of preseason practice. “Hopefully, with us being a year older, we’ll be more experienced across the board and that will transition into some more wins for us and, hopefully, a good season overall.”
Holden said the club will also benefit just from him having a year under his belt as the LFO skipper.
“In your first year being the head coach, obviously you have a lot of things to figure out from the big things down to the small things,” he explained. “But coming into my second year, I feel like I know this roster a little bit better. Last year, we only returned a couple of contributors from the year before, but this year, we’re pretty much bringing the entire roster back. I know how to motivate these guys a little more now and I’m more comfortable about how to go about coaching this team.”
Holden will have another small senior class, but very valuable one, especially when it comes to toeing the rubber for the Red-and-White. All three seniors, Riley Mosier, Zac Coots and Carson McCammon, have plenty of varsity experience on the mound and all three will be prominently featured as starters in 2020.
Mosier led the Warriors in innings pitched (45.1) and strikeouts (48) a season ago. Already committed to playing in college at Savannah State University, Mosier has started since his sophomore season. He will play first base when not on the hill and could even see a little time in the outfield.
Like Mosier, Coots has been a starter on the staff since his sophomore year and he will also split time at first base. He paced the Warriors with a 2.56 ERA last spring and averaged nearly a strikeout per inning (40 in 41 innings). Holden said both veterans will also be counted on for more offensive production at the plate.
McCammon will man shortstop when he isn’t pitching and will likely bat No. 3 in the order. A playmaker with a lot of potential, McCammon hit .339 with 12 RBIs last season and should see his share of innings on the mound as well.
All three were All-Region performers for LFO a year ago.
“I think the strength of this team is going to be on the mound,” Holden said. “Riley and Zac have really carried the mail for us the last two years. They’ve logged a lot of innings for us and now we’re going to add Carson, who’s going to be more featured as a pitcher this year than he was last year. He spent some time coming out of the bullpen last year and he’s really started hitting his stride as a pitcher. We think he’s going to be really effective as a starter this year.”
A large junior class includes several returning players who saw varsity innings as sophomores.
Josh McAfee can play both second base and shortstop. Devin Hinton will see time at centerfield, while Nyko Simpson can play both in the outfield and in the infield. Eli Burgess and Gage Kelly will also log time in the outfield, while Isaiah Blackburn will see action at third base.
Matthew Shields will primarily be a pitcher for the Warriors, but could also play some at first base and in the outfield. Kelly will also see innings for the Warriors and Blackburn will also see time coming out of the bullpen as a reliever.
Among the underclassmen, Will Carroll batted .354 with 14 RBIs as a freshman last year. He will primarily see time at catcher, but could also see time at third base and on the mound, while another sophomore, Peyton Tipton, will give LFO additional depth on the infield.
Freshman Dylan Blankenship will also see some innings on the mound, on the infield and in the outfield, while Tres Brown will give the team another solid option behind the plate.
Holden added that two of the talking points for the new season were playing loose and playing with confidence.
“Last year, we had a bunch of young guys that were trying to feel it out on the varsity level,” he added. “But this year, we have a lot of guys returning that know about the grind of the season. Hopefully, they’ll play with a little more confidence and a little more loosely.
“We were young and we were competitive (last spring), but then we would hurt ourselves with errors, giving up big innings and things like that. That was kind of a ‘young team thing’ in a lot of ways, so hopefully this year we’ll take that next step and start putting the pressure on our opponents. Playing a clean game, that’s pretty much the key to the season.”