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Sports Column - 06/03/2004
Even though Smoky Mountain won just three baseball games for the second straight season, Coach Ron Yount found reason for optimism.
“Considering the fact that we were so young and inexperienced at every position except for two, I think we made some progress,” he said. “The future looks brighter, especially with our JVs coming up. They had a record over .500 at 11-10.”
He noted left fielder Ben Robinson and right fielder Nathan Medlin were the only players on the team starting at the same position they did a year ago.
“I was hoping we might be able to gain enough experience to play around .500 ball, but that inexperience contributed to a number of errors,” he said.
Counting errors, wild pitches and passed balls, Yount said the Mustangs committed 132 miscues while collecting just 103 hits. The team averaged only three runs a game.
“That tells you something right there,” he said. “Now that they have the varsity experience, maybe it will be a different situation in the future.”
Pitching was clearly the team’s best area. While the composite ERA of 4.38 was not outstanding, it was adequate enough to have produced some more wins with better offensive and defensive support.
While going 3-17 overall, the Mustangs were 2-14 in the Mountain Athletic Conference. The two league wins came back-to-back over North Buncombe and East Henderson and were the highlights of the season.
Especially standing out was the 4-3 win over North. SM trailed 3-0 entering the bottom of the seventh but tied it on David White’s home run. The winning run scored on an error.
The first game with North produced one of the low points as the Black Hawks rallied to win in the bottom of the seventh. Another disappointment was a loss to Asheville in which the teams were tied entering the seventh.
Seniors were Robinson, Medlin, White and Stephen Karby.
“We’ll miss all four of them,” Yount said.
He noted that Robinson committed just one error while Medlin had only two.
Karby was named all-conference after batting .500 for what is believed to be a school record. Although he won only one game on the mound, he had a solid 2.92 ERA.
Making his batting average more impressive but underlining the team’s hitting woes is the fact that the average was .260 points higher than the second-best mark on the team.
White received honorable mention all-conference after posting a team-leading ERA of 2.79.
Junior returnees will include Ben Blakely and Zack West. Also coming back will be sophomores Eric Coleman, J.R. Collins, Coleman Corzine, Tyson Crawford, Brandon Magruder and Josh Maney.
“All those guys returning will have varsity experience, which will be a positive for us,” Yount said. “It’s two steps up from the JV level when you move up to varsity.”
The coach noted he started at least three sophomores in every game this season.
“We’ll be in the same conference next year so there will be a lot of competition,” Yount said. “A lot of the guys coming up from the JVs have experience with some wins. If you know how to win, that’s a big key. We’re going to have to be more aggressive and get after it.”
He noted Roberson, Franklin, Tuscola and Erwin should all field strong teams again in the MAC.
The Mustangs will be looking to move up in the conference standings in their final year of 3-A ball before dropping to 2-A for the 2006 season.
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