hilltop

To his credit the umpire was squeezing him. He had 7 walks in the first three innings. After Edwards had the catcher Fair raise the target a little things settled down. Crockett is a very good hitting team and Crockett coach Hagy even said their approach was going to be to get him into a high pitch count by taking a lot of pitches. 18 strikeouts and no hits in 7 innings tells me there weren't a whole lot of swings by Crockett during the game. Pitch better? C'mon man, this isn't the majors. If the coach made a bad decision, fair enough let him know, but lets not start bashing a kid who actually had a pretty good game. His first pitch was 93, and he 96 several times, I even heard he hit 97 once last night. He is a special talent.

Go toppers!

Jake's family, teamates, coaches, and classmates are in our prayers as they have to move on from such a difficult loss. What a tragedy. All of North East Tennessee is saddened by the loss. At the Science Hill game people were crying as the news began to spread thru the crowd. It was the quietest 3 point win Science Hill ever had.

I'm glad he'll have the more time to see Lancer play, and he will no doubt be there for any area players that need his help or advice, especially SH players. That said, it seems like a bit of a bad move on Edwards part to let Reed go. Edwards inherited a team built for state 2 years ago, but after losing 11 seniors the Toppers will be rebuilding for the next couple of years. If the Toppers struggle without Reed it will only look bad on Edwards. I hope Edwards knew what he was doing. I think the boys are really going to miss Jeff.

Anybody hear why assistant coach Jeff Reed was let go? He seemed to provide valuable experience for those boys.

Coach Edwards did a good job this year at mixing in some younger guys throughout the year, and I think that will pay dividends in '10. Arradondo saw time at 3b and could start there. Will Carter would have played more if not for injury, but looked good in the short times we saw him and looks to be a very promising player on the mound and at the plate. Tyler Wilson finished the season as a solid reliable pitcher for the Toppers and will likely be counted as the # 2 starter behind D-NO. Nick Fair even got a little time this year behind the plate. It'll be a rebuilding year for sure, but I think McPhearson will emerge as the leader of this team and the Toppers will take on his gritty hard nosed style of play and surprise a lot people in 2010.

www.tbca.org

Any word on the Farragut Bearden game?

That was the all-tournament team that was listed in the press. Norris was the MVP I can't remember all the selections but I know McKinney, Patterson and Reed from Science Hill made it, along with Shipley, Freeman, and Deloach from Crockett and Archer from South.

D-NO has hit a lot higher than 88

Science Hill - Ben McKinney P/OF - Georgia Tech Daniel Sharp P - Carson Newman Lance Reed C - Carson Newman Ryan Gentry C - Milligan Cody Metcalf P - Milligan

Ben McKinney, Sr. from Science Hill. Georgia Tech signee. Great pitcher and very good hitter. Daniel Norris is something special. Just a sophmore but the lefty throws in the 90's with some nasty breaking stuff. Hes hit 8 or 9 homers this year too.