ORbaseball

Great to see Serrano and Tennessee take a chance on McDaniels of Oak Ridge; got the news on Monday that Serrano agreed to let him walk-on. A well deserved opportunity for some of the best offensive stats in the state.

By no means did I mean to imply that Matt was better than Lane Thomas. I fully agree that Thomas is a great baseball player, and he has been for some time. But there are "late bloomers" at the HS level that go unnoticed their Senior years, and since college coaches rarely recruit during a HS season, I was just trying to get the word out. I appreciate the feedback from basketballgirl17; juco is a great opportunity for late bloomer; just ask Tim Hudson of the Braves. I know Matt and his family, and I'm sure they will look at all their opportunities and make a good decision for Matt's future with regards to both baseball and his education.

I've been following HS baseball in the Knoxville area for 10yrs now, and I've never seen an offensive show like Matt McDaniel of Oak Ridge has put on this year, especially when you consider the bats (BBCOR requirement) have changed significantly in the last two years. Last night vs Bearden using a wood bat, he went 4-4 with 2 HR, one opposite field. This BIG young man (bats left, throws right) is hitting .506 with 10HR (ties ORHS record), OBP of .573, SLG of 1.035, and a OPS of 1.608 (stats up to date as of last night on Gamechanger.com). Probably the most impressive stat is he only has 2 (yes, two) sttrikeouts in 85 AB to go with these stats! He's also been solid in the field (catcher and 1B), and has led OR to its best finish in the district (2nd) in years. I can't believe of all the "D1" kids I've seen (including those on opposing teams like Bearden last night) that the a D1 team hasn't taken notice. I know it's not grades, becasue he scored well on his ACT (he's a freind of my son, so I know), and has taken honors classes at ORHS. I know that Junior year and "travel ball" are recruiting times for most colleges, but word has to be getting out about this young man with the numbers he's been putting up. If there are any college coaches out there that look at these posts, don't take my word for it, talk to some of the opposing coaches this kid has faced this season. He has found an approach at the plate this year that has changed his game completely, and someone (right now, a few D2 teams are very interested in him) will get a gem of a player, and good all around kid.

Personally, I do not like it. I think it forces coaches to work harder to find enough games to fill their schedules (~34 games), plus non-district games are easier to cancel and never re-schedule due to weather. In the end, I think this will result in 4-6 fewer games played during the season for some of these teams. I think it will also make seeding more difficult when district tournament roles around with several teams tied. Hopefully they don't have travel team-like "tie breakers" in place like "runs allowed" and "runs scored" which causes some teams to get throttled in the name of better seeding.

Oak Ridge scrimmaged Jefferson County on Saturday, 2-23, and it ended in a 4-4 tie. It was a well played scrimmage by both teams with solid pitching and defense, most of the hitting and runs scored by the tops of the line-up.One of the surprises for the Oak Ridge pitching is junior shortstop Stephen May who has pitched well for the wildcats in his 5 innings this preseason giving up only one run. Jefferson County appears to have a stable of good pitchers as well, and I expect both of these teams will have successful seasons if they contine and improve upon the level of play they exhibited on Saturday and can stay healthy.

Since no paper publishes scores or highlights scrimmages, I wanted to start a thread on the topic. Oak Ridge scrimmaged Knoxville Catholic 2-18-13, and Oak Ridge won 9-3 in a 9-inning scrimmage. Through 5 innings, Oak Ridge was up 9-0 on good pitching by Seniors Jordan Lane, Connor Roberts, and Reid Elwood. Lane was also the big stick for Oak Ridge, getting on base every time. Catholic seemed to have trouble with the off-speed pitches, and Oak Ridge capitalized on that weakness. Catholic pitching had flashes of greatness, but walks came back to haunt them as Oak Ridge again capatilized and put up a lot of runs early. Considering it was the first scrimmage for both, not a bad game defensively either with few errors and some nice defensive plays.

Thanks for bringing us back on topic. I am in perfect agreement with your rankings. With two of the best pitchers in the district and being so well coached, HVA will be hard to de-thrown as the district champions. With Jordan Lane pitching, ORHS should at least get splits with Halls, Powell, and AC; their abilty to finish #2 will depend on keeping pitchers arms healthy and getting their bats going. The problem last year with ORHS was no run support, as both Powell and Halls beat Lane by 1 run, with OR only scoring 3 runs total in those two games. The one that I'm "iffy" about is AC. If Hunter Tackett pitches and is finding the strike zone, he could get some upset wins with a little run support.

Two Freshmen transferred to Grace at Winter break, but it's nothing that will affect the varsity team this year. However, they were good young athletes that will likely develop into good varsity baseball players, so it's definitely a loss for the program's future. All these private, Christian schools in the area seem to have the money, facilities, and programs headed in the right direction. If I were a new parent today, I can't say I wouldn't be preparing to do the same thing (private school), but not for for sports so much as for the Christian-based education and environment. But that's a different topic for a different thread.

It's cold outside with snow on the ground, but the season is just 7 weeks away. I saw the schedule, and it appears we no longer play every team in the district twice (about half of them twice, and the other half once). Should be interesting. Any predicitions out there? Hardin Valley should be strong again behind their pitching and well coached crew. They meet Oak Ridge in first games of season for OR (3/11 and 3/12). Should be good games if Oak Ridge can get their bats going early in the season (traditionally a weakness). Oak Ridge has its largest senior class in many years (8) led by Lane and McDaniels, so we will see if experience and Senior leadership translates into a good season.

First D1 pitcher to come out of Oak Ridge in a long, long time. Western Kentucky sounds like a good fit for him, and he should get to pitch there early and often.

Thomas Cox for Oak Ridge is hitting .470 and has surpassed OR's all-time single season hits record (51 and counting); I think he deserves a nod.

Oak Ridge beat Halls, 9-5. Halls helped early with 4 errors, but Oak Ridge has knocked the cover off the ball the last two games and played decent defense. Oak Ridge has the pitching; it's been lack of offense and errors that have been the issue when they loose. Almost the same bracket as last year with OR and HVA to play Tuesday with the winner getting a Region berth. It will be Lane throwing on Tuesday, you can bet on it.

Wow, the HVA program continues to impress me. As I said in a much earlier post, these guys have been out there working every day after school since early Fall, so they deserve the reward of a successful season. Good luck to everyone later this week. Tournament should be a good one.

Yes, Painter threw against Oak Ridge, and threw well. A coach from Carson-Newman was in the stands filming him and taking notes. Oak Ridge didn't show up offensively, and best available pitching was not used. Oak Ridge had nothing to gain in district seeding by beating Halls, so they pitched a kid that had shown improvement in hopes he'll be ready to produce by tournament time. OR #2 pitcher Roberts is done for 4 weeks with growth plate issues in throwing elbow, but sticks (or lack of them) has still been the biggest hole in OR this season.

No way will they pitch Lane against Halls; they already seen him once, and a victory wins OR nothing in the district standings. Lane is scheduled to throw against Gibbs on Thursday. With Roberts (their #2 pitcher) out for the rest of the season with a growth plate issue in elbow, Oak Ridge will likely throw Steen, a Sophomore that has good velo and action, but tends to walk a lot if his game is off. Again, OR's weakness has not been pitching; Lane's ERA is <1, and Roberts and Elwood have ERAs <3. OR has to hit and play error-free defense to win, something they have not done with any consistency all season. As AC beat Clinton last night, it appears my predictions in the earlier post on this thread is panning out.

I think the top 3 for seeding will be #1-Halls, #2-Powell, #3-HVA. I think Halls will sweep this week, and having swept Powell, finish ahead of them. Powell and HVA will split if Drake is on his game, and could sweep HVA if they keep their composure under the HVA onslaught of small-ball. With a split, that would put them both at 13-3, and not sure what the tie-breaker would be to determine #2 or #3. If Oak Ridge sweeps Campbell Co. and loses to Halls, then that puts them at 10-6 and in #4 seed. AC and Clinton play this week; AC has to sweep Clinton to get #5, and I don't thonk they can. Thus, I think 5-8 will be Clinton, AC, Karns, and Campbell Co.

Wow, what a game if you like pitching! Lane for Oak Ridge and D. Owenby and Skeen for Powell were awesome last night. Had the gun out on Lane and Owenby in first inning; Lane hit 88mph, and Owenby 89mph. I'm certain each of them touched 90 as the game went on and the adrenaline was pumping. I think both starters gave up two hits, including lead-off triples. The difference was Oak Ridge's lead-off triple came from their #5 hitter, and Owenby had an easier path to get out of trouble than Lane, whose lead-off triple was given up to the younger Owenby as their #1 hitter (who scored on a sacrifice fly). Fantastic game by all the pitchers involved. Owenby is definitely gonna see action early on at UT with that level of pitching, and likely an MLB draft pick for late rounds if he puts his name in that hat; 90mph and lefty is a rarity. Lane has more than a half-dozen D1 schools looking at him seriously now; with more performances like that against quality teams like Powell, he could get some serious looks from SEC schools as well, especially being a young (won't be 17 'til late May) Junior and another Summer of showcase ball coming up for him. I would love to see this match-up again at district tournament, but it will take some work for Oak Ridge to get there being a lower seed (likely #4 seed).

Very well stated. District tournament should be interesting again. Don't forget about Clinton being a "spoiler" during tournament, as they took Powell to extra innings this year, they beat OR at home, and they played HVA to a 1-run game last night. Clinton also upset Halls last year in round 1 of tourney to put them in the loser's bracket. Powell has shown a weakness to score runs at times (Karns held them to 2 runs), so they are vulnerable on occasion. Some good games left before tourney (Powell vs HVA next week, Powell vs OR Friday, and Halls vs OR next Tuesday) to determine the seeding, so best of luck to all.

Oak Ridge is 5-4 with losses to HVA, Halls, Powell and Clinton. They still have to play Clinton, Halls, and Powell one more time, as well as two each against Central and Campbell Co. It looks like O.R. will be competing with Clinton and AC for the 4-6 seeds. Clinton is playing much better; "scrappy" is the best way to describe them, especially on offense.

Great victory for HVA. Should be some great competition between them and Powell as well later this month.

Oak Ridge can look "shaky" at times on offense and defense. Pitching has been solid with Lane, Roberts, and Elwood having a combined ERA of 1.85 but only a 5-4 record between them. A lack of run support and errors have been an issue. Same thing last year, but peaked at tourney time, so their is hope. I would put Halls up there as one of the most fundamentally sound teams that I've seen. For 3AAA, it looks like Powell, Halls, Oak Ridge and HVA are fighting for the top 4 seeds the rest of the way.

If nothing else, you are entertaining. Keep it up...I'm sure no one from Powell reads this board, and even if they did, I'm sure this would not motivate them in the least.

If there is an HVA pitcher at 90mph, he hasn't pitched this season yet, and I've watched 4 HVA games. HVA is definitely fundamentally sound and can beat anyone in district 3AAA on any given day. That said, let's see how they do against some of the districts better teams in Halls and Powell, especially against the Halls' lefties (Painter and Corcione) and Drake Owenby (Powell). As for the most talented team in 3AAA, it has to be Powell.

I predict good pitching.

There was a scrimmage "jamboree" this past Saturday (3/3/12) in Oak Ridge with 8 East TN teams participating in 3 5-inning games: Bearden, Loudon Co., CAK, Powell, Sevier County, Hardin Valley Academy, Campbell County and Oak Ridge. Pitching dominated most games, and the BBCOR bats were definitely a part of that. Bearden looked good and ready for the season, and their offense definitely stood out above the other teams as they went undefeated. Drake Owenby (Powell, UT signee)looked good in his outing as Powell beat CAK 2-0. HVA played well and showed that they are ready to defend their 2011 District tourney championship. Jordan Lane of Oak Ridge threw a 1-hit 4 innings against CAK as well and looked crisp. CAK competed well with the AAA teams, and will be stout again this year in their AA division (state tourney reps in '11). Sevier County fell to HVA 3-2, and then tied Oak Ridge 3-3 on some good small-ball stratagey. Overall, a lot of good competitive baseball.