CLASS AAA REGION THREE
District 5
Cleveland
Walker Valley (Cleveland)
McMinn County (Athens)
Rhea County (Evensville)
Bradley Central (Cleveland)
Ooltewah
Soddy-Daisy
District 6
Cumberland County (Crossville)
Cookeville
Coffee County (Manchester)
Warren County (McMinnville)
White County (Sparta)
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CLASS AAA REGION FOUR
District 7
Blackman (Murfreesboro)
Riverdale (Murfreesboro)
Oakland (Murfreesboro)
Siegel (Murfreesboro)
LaVergne
Smyrna
District 8
Shelbyville
Tullahoma
Franklin County (Winchester)
Lincoln County (Fayetteville)
Columbia
Lawrence County (Lawrenceburg)
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Ooltewah 20-13
1/23 After overachieving
last year with a young team to finish (20-13, 9-3) tied for first in
District 5-AAA, the Ooltewah Owls will attempt to build on their
experience and make a deep playoff run. Offensively, the Owls will be led
by three seniors. SS/3B T.J. Binder (Troy Univ) brings a career .470 BA
into his senior campaign and will be relied on to drive in some big runs.
Setting the table for him will be the combination of CF Drew Toth
(Tennessee Tech) and SS/2B Cody Rhinehart (Bryan College). Other offensive
leaders will be UTK committee 1B Kevin Dupree (Jr.), C Brody Binder (So.),
and 3B/OF Drew Williams (Jr.). Fighting for the remaining spots in the
lineup will be 1B/OF Jared Ryan (Jr.), OF Jared Davenport (Jr.), UT Will
Purnell (Jr.) and OF Logan Fugate (So.).
Pitching and defense should be the strength of this team and is
anchored by six juniors. LHP Kevin Dupree will be counted on for a lot of
big innings. RHP Zach Thompson has made great strides over the summer and
fall and is poised to have a big year. The Owls are also hoping for big
things from LHP Jackson McClain , RHP Jared Ryan, RHP Chase Morrissey, and
RHP Drew Williams. The leaders on defense should be the 3 seniors (Binder,
Rhinehart, and Toth) and our young catcher Brody Binder.
Overall, the Owls will go as far as their pitching and defense can
take them. They are not deep and will need to stay away from the injury
bug. They will also need for their young players to step up and improve
quickly in order to add offensive depth and compete in a very tough
district and to make a run in the playoffs.
Warren County 10-20
2/1 Warren County enters its
4th consecutive year with a new coach, so the Pioneers are looking to
establish a foundation to build on. Warren County has improved its win
totals in each of the last three years and look to keep the momentum and
get over .500. The Pioneers only lost 4 Seniors so they bring back a good
core from last years team. The Pioneers will be led by a great group of
Seniors who have shown great leadership for the younger kids.
Offensively the Pioneers have struggled but hope that returning most of
the starting lineup will pay off during the season. The pitching staff
will be lead by 5 seniors and 4 juniors with the younger guys looking to
fill in where needed. Defensively Warren County will have a few spots to
fill but should be solid in most areas. They return most of the starters
and again look to build on a pretty successful year in the field. The
Pioneers will definitely rely on their pitching and defense to get them
through the year.
The Pioneer Seniors have been through all kind of change in their 4 years
but look to end the high school career on a high note. If they continue to
be good leaders like they have throughout the fall the Pioneer baseball
team will be very competitive and look to turn a corner.
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Tullahoma 19-19
2/1 The 2012 Tullahoma Wildcat
baseball team will try to continue the recent trend of making deep
tournament runs and hopefully take it one step further. After back-to-back
one run Sectional losses the Wildcats return 5 starters from last years
team.
The offense will not be as high powered as years past with the loss of
James Plaisted and David Hess. This years team will have to rely on
execution and speed. Jordan Sheffield (Jr.) and Justus Sheffield (So.)
will get things started at the top of the order. Jordan Moore (Sr.),
Austin Creasman (Sr.), and Sebastian Charboneau (Sr.) should have the
opportunity to drive in plenty of runs. Zack Lampkin (Jr.), Jesse Haywood
(Sr.) and the return of Garrett Caldwell (Sr.) should make the back of our
line-up solid and set the table for the Sheffield's to be able to drive in
runs back at the top.
Pitching will be the strength of the 2012 team. (1) Bradley Roepke Sr. 6'2
200 LHP, (2) Jordan Sheffield Jr. 6'0 175 RHP (Vanderbilt Commit), and
Justus Sheffield So. 6'0 180 LHP should give us three top of the rotation
starters. We have more depth than in the previous years behind these guys.
Jesse Haywood (Sr.), Austen Rogers (Jr.), Michael Shipp (Jr.), and Sam
Tomes (Jr.) all have the ability to start District games. Peyton Phillips
(Jr.), Zack Lampkin (Jr.) and Scottie Maupin (Jr.) should be solid out of
the bull-pen.
Defense will be critical with the pitching staff that we have this year.
In particular, we must find a catcher to replace James Plaisted. Garrett
Caldwell, Scottie Maupin, Alex Butaud, Caleb Zidan and Tyler Burns will
all compete for this job. We then must find a 3rd baseman and 1st baseman.
Lastly, someone has to step-up to play SS when Jordan Sheffield is on the
mound.
The 2012 schedule will be as challenging as any that we have ever played
before, with trips to Jackson, MS (Border Battle) and the Blaze Classic,
highlighting a terrific out of district slate. The challenge facing the
2012 team is chemistry. Right now they are 38 guys going 38 different
directions. This team could be great and achieve some very high goals IF
they can come together. |
