bigbadblue

I will talk to coach carson, but i highly doubt that his team will be travelling to weekend tournaments considering the costs. If you play for him you should mention it to him...i suppose if the players and their parents wanted to travel to weekend tournaments he would find a way.

...I can also give you a list of open league tournaments being played in chattanooga, knoxville and tri-cities area if you are wanting to go that route.

email me at acoultry@utk.edu and I will put you in touch with Ooltewah, Cleveland, Bradley and Walker Valley. They will all be needing summer games

One monkey won't stop the show. I saw Farragut play an exhibition game against the Atlanta Braves, and they beat them 15-0. There were fifty scouts clocking the Farragut pitchers. One of their pitchers was clocked at 99 mph. Did I forget to mention that he was pitching with a broken hand and ankle as well as with a blindfold on? Farragut's cleanup hitter hit a 500 foot blast, opposite field. After this game, MLB began talks of moving the Expos to Farragut. Houston has nothing on that.

Cleveland use to have this one guy named Chad Davis who could run like the wind.

How far are you willing to travel and are you interested in tournaments?

All Rutherford County teams deserve to lose.

Seymour is in Sevier County (Gatlingburg, Pigeon Forge, Seveirville). They are close to the Knox County line, about fifteen minutes from South Knoxville. I know they got off to a slow start this year, but apparently turned things around. AA teams, for the most part, are hard to judge. Seymour should, however, be competetive.

Farragut will tatoo Houston's ace, as well as any other pitcher in high school baseball. Give them a little more credit than that. Houston has one ace, Farragut has three. There is your difference, and the Admiral's pitching staff will be the dominating force in this year's tournament. Come back to this board when it is all said and done and quote me on that one.

The reason Science Hill and Germantown arent in the tournament is because their contract with the devil ran out. If you don't believe me you can call home and ask my wife. Don't get your panties in a wad, ladies. I was only being sarcastic.

Blake got drafted by the Atlanta Braves and made his first appearance as closer in Atlanta's 5-4 victory over the Giants last week. John Smoltz, former closer for the Braves, has been sent down to AA Greenville and is said to be toying with the idea of early retirement. Carver said in reference to his injury, " I'm about 70% right now. My fastball is nearing 100 mph, but should be in the 110+ range by late July." Carver will, however, be spending his days off from the Braves orginization next year to finish out his career at Cleveland High School.

Well, things could be worse - the score could have been 20-2. I don't know what it is about the Rutherford County schools, but region 3 can never seem see light past Monteagle Mountain. They (Rutherford Co. schools) have got to be cheating somehow. We will have to launch a secret investigation. Maybe its in their food? Maybe they are sneaking in illegal baseballs and bats? Maybe, possibly they have sealed a deal with the devil, as did Farragut, Germantown and Science Hill. If so, maybe their contract will run out and someone else can make an offer to reign kings of regions three and four, and be on a four year rotation, along with Farragut, Germantown and Science Hill, to win the state tournament. If anybody has any information, post it on this board or email it to the T.B.I. titled Rutherford Co. Deal with the Devil.

A team that lost ten straight games, Meigs County, is going to Memphis while the team who beat them four times, Walker Valley, is going to be staying at home. Very, very, highly intriguing. My prediction for Meigs Co: two games, twenty runs and they are going back to the mudbanks of the Hiwassee River. They could always skip the tournament and go straight to Beale Street, or better yet, they could get special permission to play in the softball tournament. Either way, they have ::sigh:: a lot to be proud of. Good luck Meigs County.

20-2??? Good reason to consider best of three playoffs. Chatt Central should have been playing in the sub-state, not Bradley. Please don't take my words out of context; Bradley is a good team with great coaching as well as extraordinary drive and determination to win, but Chatt Central had the best team from the TN Valley in AAA. Had Central and Bradley played best of three, Central would have been playing Oakland or Riverdale or whoever it might have been from that region. Might I also add that Central's number one pitcher gave up one earned run the whole season. Wow. I would also like to suggest making a seperate state tournament for Farragut, Germantown, Houston, Science Hill and all teams in Rutherford County. It is always those teams in the state tournament; they must have a deal with the devil or be part of some conspiracy to hold a monopoly of the baseball state tournament. Life for a AAA high school baseball team in Tennessee just isn't fair.

Riverdale will see Cleveland High School's best Friday night. Blake Carver, Cleveland's number one pitcher, will be on the mound against the Warriors. At that point, Riverdale will have an opportunity to prove if they are as great hitting of a team as many of their supporters have said. I'm assuming Cleveland will be facing great pitching as well, and the Raiders will most definitely need to have one of their best nights at the plate in order to beat Riverdale. This should be a great, low scoring battle. Like Cleveland, Bradley will be throwing their number one pitcher, Kellen Pickel, against their Sub-State opponent, Oakland. Tyler Westmoreland will be a player to watch for Bradley, as well as Pickel and Aaron Bristol. I also predict that Coach Geren for Bradley will argue with the umpires at least once. Four great teams, two excellent baseball games and one heck of a night for high school baseball.

Walker Valley could most definitely compete at any level of competition in the state. Considering that WV is one of the best teams in the state, my question is how would Walker Valley match up against a team such as Farragut, Riverdale or Houston? Better yet, how would they match up against a team such as Austin East, TN School for the Deaf or Copper Basin? I think it would be interesting to see Walker Valley play any of these teams; sure it would be a nail biter. Go Mustangs

I think we should have the baseball state championship in Copper Basin TN and North Knoxville. Austin East and Copper Basin High School have excellent facilities as well as flurishing communities with vibrant natives. The softball state tournament can be played in South Dakota; track and field in Wyoming. A badmitton net can be used to make a tennis court in the parking lot of the TSSAA office in Hermitage so that we can reward the officials of the organization with a break from all the labor intensive tasks that they are annually dominated with. Finally, we can do like our beloved Univ. of TN. Volunteers and drop the soccer program so that the TSSAA can increase their employees' salaries. I think that will solve all of our problems. Another solution, as many have argued, would be to have the Spring Fling in Nashville/M'boro/Williamson Co. Having the events in Memphis and Chattanooga as well as Knoxville or the Tri-Cities area is not a logical solution, and people will be upset as long as the events are held in any of these areas. But, as someone mentioned earlier, it is all about the dead presidents...Very sad that the innocence of high school athletics has been hindered by a group of adults thinking in terms of money. Whatever happened to the "we're out here for the kids" mentality??? I hope I don't hear a representative for TSSAA hide behind that one; the have made it clear that it is not about the kids, it's all about finding a site to meet their ends. On a lighter note, best of luck to all who will be participating in this years Spring Fling. Good luck to whoever faces Farragut in the baseball tourney.

In 5AAA Cleveland and Bradley are left, but will probally not play the championship game. I think, and I may be wrong, that Chatt. Central and Ooltewah are the last two in 6AAA. In 4AAA I think, but may be wrong, that Farragut and Maryville are the remaining two.

Copper Basin by far has the best field in the state. I would put Austin East at second best in the state. The state tournament should be played at those two sites. Speaking of, what's up with a tournament ALL THE WAY IN MEMPHIS? That's a whole other world over there; we might as well play in Mexico. Sullivan County teams might as well ride a plane...

Tyler Stafford is his name. He is very good defensively and offensively. Tell him his all time favorite umpire says hello and that I will be back to call summer ball.

I saw BJ Church for the first time Monday at Soddy Daisy. He is by far the best high school pitcher I have seen. The scouts had clocked him at 88 mph in the third inning or so. It seemed as if he picked up the speed as the game went into the sixth and seventh innings. Not only does he have a good fastball, his curveball is unreal. When you mix those two pitches up, any team in the state is going to have trouble hitting. Travis Simmons, who was pitching for Cleveland, also had a heck of a game. I think they said that the scouts had clocked him around 84 mph, which is still bringing it. Both pitchers brought their A game, and pitched a heck of a game. However, Cleveland scored two runs off of Church in the eighth inning thanks to a blooper over the second baseman's head by Jarred Gaston of Cleveland. They pulled Church after that, but Soddy scored two off of Simmons the next inning to tie it up. Soddy ended up scoring in the bottom of the ninth and winning the battle. Great performances by both teams, especially BJ Church and Travis Simmons.