Can anyone tell me what to expect from the baseball team this year. Any players that will really catch our eyes? Any players in the district that I should
make it a point to see?
I think that Nac will be the team to beat, they should have good pitching with McAnnich and Hill. They will miss the Wier kid's bat. Henderson will be
pretty good with some young talent, the Jenkins kid that started @ qb against Marshall should be their ace on the mound. I think the Mavs will go as far as
their pitching will take them, they return several position players.
The varsity will be VERY senior laiden. With 12-13 seniors on the team as well as the returning underclassmen: Tyler O'Bryant (Jr), Beau Bayliss (Soph),
Darius Jones (Jr) and Dameon Smith (Jr). All though Darius and Dameon have to get out of basketball and track. There were other underclassmen practicing with
the varsity on Friday. Not sure of all their names.
Some key postions are up for grabs. First base had 5-6 players taking reps there on Friday. Second base had a lot of players trying out there, even tho Ryan
Hall and Jackson Hood both saw time there last season.
The outfield could be the fastest that Marshall has seen in a long time with the likes of Hood, Hall, Sawyer Hall, Sam Baldwin, and others.
Infield will be very solid with any number of possibilites for a lineup there.
Pitching has been everybody's question mark about this team. IMHO, I think the staff will be ok with a lot of guys getting a look in the non-district part
of the schedule. They should be very solid when district rolls around. Some that will see time on the bump are Dustin Fitzgerald, O'Bryant, Bayliss, Smith
and others.
This is all just my speculation from watching 2-3 practices this week.
The team will have an intrasquad game on Tuesday Feb. 5th at 4:30 on Maverick Field then travel to Texarkana on Friday the 8th to scrimmage Texas High. The
Alumni Game will be Saturday the 9th at 1pm and should be great fun. Hope the weather holds out for all of these.
As luck would have it, I got my days screwed up (you do that alot when you work as many graveyard shifts as I do) and took my kids by the field to see a little
of the intrasquad game. We were there for about 30-45 minutes. I didnt know who any of the players were so I cant tell you who did what. I saw one very nice
play by the third baseman who charged a weak grounder and fired across off balance to get his man. One Mav sent a ball on the roof of the building behind LF.
Pitching didnt seem to be quite there yet, but it didnt seem to be that far off either. My kids had a blast the short time we were there so Im sure I will be
getting to see more Mav baseball this year.
The scrimmage that was scheduled to be played against Evangel next week at their place has been rescheduled.
It will now be at Maverick Field on Tuesday the 12th at 5pm.
Great, can you ask the folks from Evangel to bring back the sling chair I left at their field last year, lol.
I prefer to watch baseball games from ground level, but if you'll remember last year's scrimmage at Evangel, it was freezing and I bolted to hide
inside the pressbox. And, of course, I promptly left without my brand new Maverick-Red sling chair
Then again, it would be a long drive back to Texas to pick it up.
Very controlled scrimmage. Only one Mav pitcher went more than one inning (he went 2). That was done by design. The game went 10-11 innings because of all the
different pitchers. I'm not sure what the "final score" was or if it was even kept. Both teams bats were held at bay early before opening it up
later on. Should be a good game when these two teams meet up on Feb.26th in Marshall. Those that I can remember having big hits for Marshall (and I'm sure
this is not all of them) Beau Bayliss, Al Agnor (couple RBI's), Ryan Hall, Sam Baldwin and Jared Gobert (a rocket over the left field wall). Like I said
there were others, but I've slept since then.
T. High always impresses me with the number of left-handers they have. Y'all must "breed" for them up there.
Hope the weather holds off for Tuesday's scrimmage against Evangel at 5pm on Mav Field.