footmaster

Agreed sports fan....just was addressing the strength comment. Although Slone had a hr, 3 triples and 4 doubles. Here's what is relevant... Coach Gray won the div 2 coach of the year...ask him what he thinks of Evan Slone. The kid played every single inning at SS unless he was pitching. He was Ludlow's most successful pitcher and he was their 3 hole hitter for the entire season. I think a great coach knows what a great player looks like... Again, not ranking kids, but he was unquestionably one of the top sophomores in NKY this year...along with every other kid that was discussed in this thread.

Another side note regarding Slone... I'm sure he's not the strongest kid, but I'm also pretty sure he's the youngest kid on my particular short list. He's only 15, could be a freshman heading into his sophomore year...but I heard his parents started him in school a little early... So, definitely not a big, strong kid. He has more growing to do I would think.

I just listed these kids in order that I have seen/heard of them... Not listing in order of who is best, etc...

Guess we'll have to start a Junior thread in a few months to keep track of these sophomore kids next year... My eyes will be on 1) the BW gang 2) Seiter (Bellevue) 3) Slone (Ludlow) 4) Smallwood (Dixie) 5) Raisor (Highlands) And others I learned about through this thread 6) Heppler (Cov Cath) 7) Purnell (Boone) 8) Trame (Scott) Gonna be fun to watch these guys grow!

Conner, Scott and SK are moving on. Anyone know if any sophomore kids have been contributing a lot to these teams this season?

Games off the top of my head... They beat Lloyd once, but easily could have one the second (and more important) seeding game... They had Bellevue beat, Lead Dixie 1-0 going into the 7th inning, had a late inning lead on Scott, gave a seeding game away late to St Henry... So, very easily with one play or call or ball bouncing their way... Ludlow could have been, and probably should have been 20-5 on the year. I expect the returning players will know what it takes to win those kind of games as they move forward. I know Coach Gray will get more out of them next season.

Great Coach! I have a feeling he'll win this honor several times. He knows his stuff... Also has excellent assistant coaches and a solid core of young players to build with. Lyons and Durham will be seniors... But Slone and Eads have a couple more years to develop with him.

Never mind... Just saw in another thread that Raisor did some great pitching for HHS. Nice job! Told you guys... Look out for Raisor, Slone, Seiter and the BW kids (Combs, Slusher and Stringer). Looking for big things regarding all these young men.

Anyone know if Rick Raisor is dressing varsity with Highlands during this run in the regional tourney? He was on my original list along with Slone, Seiter and the BW kids...

Haha, agreed... Tough for 1a schools to beat 5a schools... Clearly the best players may be somewhat even, but when you have the numbers, you know a big schools' 6-9 hitters are gonna be better than a smaller schools' 6-9... More often than not anyway.

Just from what I've seen and read this season... It sure seems to be the year of Dixie and Conner. But, you're right. Surely no one could be surprised if CCH and HHS both advance.

Not sure how it's all gonna end up... But honestly, not having Combs for hitting and pitching hurt BW badly. That being said, even with him, I don't think most people should have expected them to make it out of the region this year... Dixie, HHS, Conner are all upper classmen heavy squads... And CCH is a tough team too... I honestly expected Bellevue and St Henry would get knocked out early and next on the list was prob BW... Only because they are an overall young team. So, I don't think they underachieved at all. Good season for a lot of the small schools in the area... BW, Bellevue and even Ludlow (with a first year coach and a very young core of players).

Agreed. From the games I saw, Coach Gray and the Panthers could very easily have made it to regionals this year... Just a few plays away and learning to win close games. I think Ludlow has a shot for sure in the coming seasons.

Well, I wasn't able to attend today... But it sounds like the young sophs from BW had some struggles today against an older, more experienced Highlands team. Great year for BW though. Most of these Soph kids are knocked out of tourney play now. Heppler is still alive with Cov Cath... Smallwood still going with Dixie too. But Seiter and Bellevue are done, Purnell and Boone are done... Slone and Ludlow didn't get past Dixie in District play... But, I still think all these young men are great baseball players and we'll probably see them all back in the mix next season. Good luck to the guys that are still playing.

Yep, a lot of good athletes at Newport are not playing baseball...for whatever reason... Probably too many reasons to delve into here...

Some of these kids will move on to regionals and some are going into summer ball mode. Either way, good luck to all of them!

Slone started... I think gave up 3 runs in 3 innings, but wasn't helped by his defense a whole lot...ended up getting his pitch count up. Lyons came on in relief, didn't fare any better... And Howard came on in relief of him...

Yep, Ludlow was just simply too young and inexperienced to hang with Dixie today... Think it was just 2-0 or 3-2 for 3 innings or so... Then it blew up. Ludlow is going to continue to improve under Coach Gray though... And a young core of players gained a lot of valuable experience this season. Good year for them.

Way to go Purnell! I know Slone played a solid SS today, was 1 for 2 w/ a double, 2 RBI and scored to runs in Ludlow's 12-2 win over Villa. He's suppose to pitch against Dixie tomorrow. Anyone know how any other of these sophomores are doing in tourney play? Great job Purnell and Slone!

Good point... Most of the kids that have been mentioned did play Varsity as freshman...

Very interested to see how some of these sophomores perform in the tourney games this week... A Little added pressure on these young guys.

Yeah, BW kids play for midland...I think one might play for flames as well. Purnell is with bluegrass. Slone is with the Astros... Not sure who Heppler plays with in summer.

I could see your point except for the fact that Ludlow had an easier schedule last season and only won 5 games... This season, with a slightly tougher schedule, they won 14. Bellevue, I'm not sure how last year's schedule compares to this year though.

Conner is having a great year! No doubt. Biggest turn around season is probably Ludlow I guess though.

Great picks! Totally agree. Ludlow really has made progress. And if I'm correct, Cooper lost a lot of seniors and has a new coaching staff. So maybe a better year for them than most expected.