Andro?

What a great start. You guys had an excellent venture down in Florence and what a comeback the other day. Any thoughts on your early progress?

 

I'll answer for Coach: I'm glad we kicked the extra point against Mars Hill in the bottom of the 9th. Darkness was about to give us one of those "kiss your sister" moments. Mars Hill can swing it this year. Their pitching looked suspect, but so did ours.

We should have won both game against Frances Marion. Andy Helms threw the best game since his Freshman year. He was in control to the end. Andrew Morton was just 'off' in game 2 or it would have been broom time. Morty is a warm weather pitcher because he has to have command of his breaking ball & hit his spots. It was windy & the temp dropped about 5-10 degrees while he was on the mound.

The Abbey has better than average defense & a potent offense. The big question mark is pitching. With weekend starter Michael Raymond out for the season (ACL) & weekend starter Jason Cline still on the DL (recovering from elbow surgery), it remains to be seen how far our pitching can carry us. Next weekend will be interesting with Mt Olive coming to town in a key conference showdown.

Cline should return in the next month. If he regains his form, BA will be a top contender & I'll be smoking alot of victory cigars!

 

UK pretty close

The pitching was kind of cut and paste against Mars Hill since those kids are on the shelf right now. We also had those two in region games against Francis Marion the next day. Jason Cline will give us a huge boost. He had a bone spur removed in late November. He will be back this weekend in relief. John Merritt (Forbush High) a kid that was recovering from a high school injury and was never at full capacity last year will also give us a big boost. He starts today.

I agree that our talent definitely lies in our lineup. We have some uperclassmen with some experience on the mound. That will always play a big role. I'm excited to see what we look like in April. How the team comes together. We've got some good players splitting time right now.

I can't say that I enjoyed that Mars Hill game, but it was nice to get a win. Morty will be sharper for his next start. In the Francis Marion game, he made some mistakes late that you can't make against a quality opponent. That team made a run in the world series last year, and they are virtually the same club. It's gonna be fun against Mt. Olive that first conference weekend.

 

Thanks guys for the informative recaps. I love these type of posts. I believe it will seperate us from the other boards. Please...keep the posts coming about Belmont Abbey...all year