justafanman22

if I am smyrna's coach, I hold rhodes until friday when they play at hendersonville. gallatin is not as strong as hendersonville and it would be a waste to throw your #2. This is a perfect opportunity to throw you're #3 in a district game to get them some experience while still having a great chance to win.

It depends on who smyrna has available. egerton might get some action on the hill. he is upper 80s with good breaking stuff.

brady frey is a great talent, but anyone who has watched the two will tell you that sonny is more dominating. It will be a close game and beech probably has the hitting advantage. will be a great game.

If you think Beech scores 4 runs of Sonny Gray, you're crazy. Beech may win, but they won't get more than 2 runs off Sonny. And even that is a long shot.

Yep, he is a junior. I have seen a lot of pitchers over the years. Saw Minor a few times. Gray throws just as hard. When you have a kid who's signed with Vandy (Hill) who throws 90+, and there are about 10 scouts there drooling over the opposing pitcher, you know he's good. Bottom line after last night. taylor Hill is excellent. He will do great things at Vandy. Right now, Sonny as a Junior is better. Now its undisputed.

There are a few big names I have yet to see. Mack Hawkes at Oakland. He has coached more professional calliber players than Pickle. My personal opinion is Craig Reavis at Siegel. He won a state title at LaVergne, in his 5th year there. He took over a team there that was 1-21 the previous year. He has Siegel playing well, and competitive in a district with Oakland and Riverdale. All this and the guy is about 31 years old. When he took over at LaVergne he was in his early 20s and looked like a student because he carried a backpack. He was hard to play for because he was very demanding but he made us all better. If I had a son, I can honestly say that I would move to the Murfreesboro area and let him play for Coach Reavis. He knows the game, he teaches the game, and he keeps the players in line, on and off the field. His teams are the most disciplined, not always the most talented. Williams at LaVergne is a joke. Pickle was an adequate coach. I apologize if this comes off as biased but I thought he should at least be mentioned.

I played for LaVergne and keep up with them very well. That being said, there is no way that they are in the top 3 of this district. Their best pitcher from last year (Harrington) is gone. Their best all around player (Hulsey, Catcher) is gone. They don't stand a chance against Smyrna, MJ, or Beech. And if I know the coach he will throw his guns at those teams in an attempt to win. Then he will play a down team like WC or Gallatin and not have any pitchers left. He used to do that stuff when he was at Smyrna many years ago. The problem is that LaVergne has 4 decent starters. This is true, but none of those four are better than the top 2 at Beech, Smyrna, and MJ. If Lavergne goes .500 in the district that will be a solid year considering they will be lucky to go 1-5 against Smyrna, MJ, and Beech. I am a wolverine through and through, but I just have to be honest. And LaVergne does not have nearly the best coach in the state. They used to, but he is gone now.

I agree the pitching matchup will be awesome. That means it comes down to hitting. I think small ball will have something to do with the outcome. I haven't seen MJ yet this year so I don't know who their hitters are but I am fairly sure they don't have anybody with power like Gray and Egerton. I saw Egerton tie a game on a blast with 2 outs in the 7th the other night. And I read a post where he's hit 6 out since last Thursday night...if that's accurate it is pretty impressive and means he may be in a groove. He is the only D1 position player prospect in this game and very well could be the difference since both pitchers are filthy. I think it is going to be a 1-0 or 2-1 kind of a game and either team can win. Can't wait.

This is an unbiased opinion from someone who has seen both teams previously and watched the columbia/smyrna game. columbia threw their #2 starter. smyrna started their #6. Smyrna has the warrior classic to worry about this weeknd and sonny threw thursday night. If gray, rhoads, egerton, galleher, or edwards starts that game smyrna wins easily. egertons offense is all smyrna would need in that contest. also, columbia won in the tenth by scoring a run of a kid who had never pitched in a varsity game. no offense to columbia, they have good talent as well, but head to head smyrna is stronger. last year mtsu beat vandy in a midweek game. this is the same situation. mtsu is not better vandy, but you save your guns for the weekend when you have a big tourney coming up.

In High School baseball the players have a lot to do with the success. Face it, coaches are the ones who win the close games. Siegel will do well because they have one of the best coaches in Tennessee...plain and simple. Reavis is head and shoulders above most coaches in the area.

After watching some of these games last year as an ump and sneaking over to the Rutherford County scrimmages this weekend, I am going to put my money with Smyrna. Beech looked horrible against Columbia. Columbia is not very good. I watched Gray strike out 9 in 3 innings, walked 2 and gave up one hit against Columbia. the game ended due to lightning and the only run scored was a solo 440+ shot to right center by shorstop Egerton. Also last year in the district tourney at Beech, Egerton hit 3 homers in 5 games, one was a shot to right center (oppo) and that takes a strong poke at Beech. He also pitched a 6 hit shutout against LaVergne (sigh, my alma mater) to finish the Wolverines season in a 1-0 game when he drove in the only run as well. I go Smyrna, because of solid pitching and with a few bats around that shortstop, they are going to be tough. MJ is solid but they lose a lot this year. It seems like they do every year, and they still compete. LaVergne is flat out weak and poorly coached. They should have paid Reavis triple digits to stay.