Feb. 15th and Baseball, will be here very shortly. Let's use this thread to discuss the 13th Region, Teams, Players to watch, Schedules, Sr college commits and the season.

 

Barbourville

Bell County

Cawood

Clay County

Corbin

Cumberland

Evarts

Harlan

Jackson County

Knox Central

Lynn Camp

Middlesboro

North Laurel

Pineville

Red Bird

South Laurel

Whitley County

Williamsburg

North Laurel should be the favorite as they won the region last season, but truly it is wide open.

 

Corbin will continue to be good as they have established a good program, but may suffer the loss of their assistant coach, Ledington.

 

Bell County may be the biggest surprise this season under new coach, Rob Ledington.

 

Middlesboro, South Laurel, and Whitley County have good programs and always field competetive teams.

 

Harlan and Williamsburg look to be tough as well coming off good seasons.

 

Knox Central, Clay County, Cumberland, Cawood, and Lynn Camp may all be underdogs that could be very competitive.

 

Barbourville and Jackson County look to build from last year's 10 win seasons.

 

Pineville, Evarts, and Red Bird will likely be at the bottom looking up.

This region will be a good one to watch!!!

From some of what I saw last year Lynn Camp and Barbourville seemed to be much improved and well on their way to turning it around with good coaches committed to winning.

Whitley County baseball will make a run for the 13th region title.

Who is hosting region tourney this year?

Who is hosting region tourney this year?

Unless changed, North Laurel.

Middlesboro, South Laurel and North Laurel could probably be considered the favorites. Bell Co. and Whitley Co. will be well coached. Corbin lost 2 very good players/pitchers. Do they have any young talent coming up to replace them?

Look for Josh Smith and Blake Hendrickson to be two nice arms for the Hounds. I would say the Hounds will not play as much "Small Ball" this season since Ledington is gone. Not sure if the Hounds can win the region, but never count Coach Garmon out of the race. He works very hard at it and seems to get the most out of his teams year in and year out.

Look for Josh Smith and Blake Hendrickson to be two nice arms for the Hounds. I would say the Hounds will not play as much "Small Ball" this season since Ledington is gone. Not sure if the Hounds can win the region, but never count Coach Garmon out of the race. He works very hard at it and seems to get the most out of his teams year in and year out.

 

Corbin needs a couple of other pitchers to show some improvement to back up Hendrickson and Smith. I'm not sure what Cashen's status is as far as pitching, but he along with Joseph Hamlin, Salmons, Hanson, etc. are all capable of becoming good pitchers with help from Garmon.

How will Williamsburg be this season?

How will Williamsburg be this season?

 

I hope I am wrong, but it could be a tough season for the Jackets. They lost alot of senior leadership, talent, and experience with the graduation of pitcher Jeff Witt, and outstanding catcher Aaron Root. They return JT Shelley on the mound and Ryan and Will Moses (both pretty good sticks). Picked up a transfer in Comparoni who will catch. He's a decent hitter but will he have Root's tenacity defensively? Williamsburg struggled all year defensively last year. Will the glove work improve enough for the young pitching staff to be competetive? Will there be enough sticks in the lineup to go with the Moses tandem? This will be a very young team this year, Shelley should be an All Star on the mound if the Jackets can come up with defense and more than 3 consistent bats in the line up.

It's a shame that Knox Central is not among the top teams in the region each and every year. They've always had a good feeder program, very good available talent, and now their facilities are steadily on the rise. Baseball is not considered "high profile" at KC and they will not go outside of the system to hire a baseball coach when one is needed nor do they give adequate support to their coaches.

How will Whitley County do this year? What kind of talent do they have coming back? How much talent did they lose?

Corbin needs a couple of other pitchers to show some improvement to back up Hendrickson and Smith. I'm not sure what Cashen's status is as far as pitching, but he along with Joseph Hamlin, Salmons, Hanson, etc. are all capable of becoming good pitchers with help from Garmon.

 

Will the young kids coming into the program like Smith and Vorbeck help any this year?