Bluefield Daily Telegraph, Bluefield, WV

Local Sports

Discussion

March 19, 2010

Knights relying on freshmen

By TOM BONE Bluefield Daily Telegraph

WELCH — The fate of the Mount View baseball season could well hinge on the development of the seven freshmen and five sophomores treading the turf at Nick Shaffron Field this spring.

“We’re young and we’re fast,” senior outfielder Quan Parker said before Friday’s practice. “Some of the freshmen and sophomores look pretty good. They can field really well.”

Fellow senior Chris Hardy said, “A lot of them can play up to four or five positions. We’re going to flip-flop around a lot, but everybody we’ve got can play. ... I feel like we should have a pretty productive season this year.”

Shortstop-second baseman Michael Edwards, who has played baseball since he was “4 or 5,” said fielding a team with considerable inexperience “is going to be kind of hard ... but we’ll have to pull together as a team — do what we’ve got to do to win some baseball games.”

The Golden Knights were rained out 13 times last year and finished the season 8-11.

“That hurt us in the long run,” Hardy said, “not being able to play, and to give our young players experience.”

“It slowed down our momentum,” Parker added.

So far this year, snow, soggy fields and rain have already altered the practice schedule.

“We’re practicing in the gym, and in the parking lot,” Edwards said.

Shaffron begins his 38th year as a head coach, including six years at the former Gary High School. Alongside will be his assistant for 10 years, Troy Hawks, a 1982 Mount View graduate and baseball player under Bluefield State coach Geoff Hunter.

“We’ve got some good coaches,” said junior Raheem Pounds. “They know what they’re talking about.”

Parker said, “Coach Shaffron is actually a great coach. He’s very disciplined. He wants (everybody) to be on time. He wants to win.”

Shaffron gives credit for the Golden Knights’ successes of the past four years to the program at Mount View Middle School, coached by Joe Riffe and Chris Richardson, and by George Waldron in the past.

This year’s varsity team includes four seniors and two juniors.

The anchors of the 2010 pitching staff are expected to be Hardy, a left-hander; Pounds; and sophomores Justin Clemins and Brandon Towler.

Pounds said high-school pitching “is kind of harder than it was in middle school, where I was bigger than most everybody and I could strike ’em out.”

Being on the mound sometimes “feels like the pressure is all on you,” he said, “but you’ve got to suck it up, and take charge.”

Also expected to climb the hill and pitch are Ryan Rhodes, Edwards, Maurice Brown, Caleb Webb, Bryan Villanueva, Adam Rhodes and Tashaan Vineyard.

“If we can have consistent pitching, we can be competitive with anyone,” Shaffron said. “We will not have a lot of power at the plate, but we will have some team speed. The ninth and 10th graders will have to grow up fast for us to be successful.”

Parker said he’s learned a lot in the three years he’s played varsity baseball.

“Sometimes you think it’s just catch and hit,” he said, “but there’s more to it than that. At bat, you need to learn how to pick up on the pitches, like seeing the curve ball. And in the field, you’ve got to know the plays, like with runners on base, and how to hit the cutoff man.”

He said he plays “for the love of the game — and how anything can happen.”

Mount View is scheduled to open the season at home against Burch on March 23. The Knights will return to the Coppinger Tournament in Bluefield with games on April 17-24. The regular season ends May 6 with a home doubleheader against Princeton.

— Contact Tom Bone at

tbone@bdtonline.com

Text Only
Local Sports