Homerun

John Fidanza, Ballard High School 2010, has verbally committed to Coastal Carolina University after being offered a baseball scholarship on Monday. Coastal Carolina University is located near Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and is a perennial college baseball power. The Chanticleers have been to the NCAA Regionals 9 of the past 10 seasons and have hosted a Regional and Super Regional two of the past three seasons. Coastal Carolina is an 11-time Big South Champion and has had numerous professional draft picks. They ended the 2009 season at 47-16 and ranked 23rd in the country after losing to the University of North Carolina in the Regional at Cary, NC. Coastal Carolina is led by Head Coach Gary Gilmore and Assistant and Catching Coach Kevin Schnall, both of whom played professional baseball. Fidanza was an All-District 27 player as a sophomore and All 27th District, All 7th Region, and Honorable Mention All-State his junior season.

The word is that Graves at Desales resigned. No word on what he might do? Heard today that Pitman from Manual may be at Ballard? Is the correct?

Who will be at Ballard and Desales?

This was a weekday game and the entire KBC was not present.

What was the "push" or motivation to change the state format to have 16 teams at the state tournament?

Lexington Catholic may have been the best prepared team in the state. Maybe the system does help that and the support for the school in the Lexington area. Not that many expected them to win state--PRP, Apollo, Covington Catholic, and Lexington Catholic were rated ahead of them during the year. I'm not so sure they were the most talented, either. Trinity has three division I players. Bullitt East may have had the most talent. Lex Cath lost Maronde's brother, who is now playing for Florida. Reading comments about Lex Cath's preparation to face Trevor Gott from Tate's Creek--waiting for a fast ball and "spitting on a curve ball"--is a credit to coaching. Lexington Catholic played solid baseball and came prepared to play.

Maybe a State "Coach of the Year" hat would fit well, too.

A state championship hat doesn't look too bad, does it?

I think what Mcpapa is saying is that the level of competition that teams play against can make a big difference in won/loss records.

I think that if Bullitt East plays well they have a good road to the state finals.

Good luck to Bullitt East in the state.

Bullitt East, the 6th region champ, is still in the hunt.

As far as choices, Butler was eliminated in the sixth region tournament and I do not see the winner, Bullitt East.

What age group of the Flames was it?

Will Ballard be as competitive with someone other than McCombs on the mound? Didn't Male score most (or all) of their runs when McCombs was out of the game?

Toughest district in the state.

Gibson pitched on Monday night. I would guess PRP could go with Harper.

Big win for Ballard. This has been a challenging year. The win has come near the end of the year and a chance to build for the play-offs.

Brandon Allen has come a long way in pitching. He has learned to keep batters off balance and hit his spots.

Infield positioning also played a role in the bottom of the 7th for X. Bases were loaded and Pehlam hit a hard ball to the right side of the infield. PRP’s second baseman got to the ball and threw to first for the final out of the inning. A hit would have won the game. In the top of the 8th, PRP was up with runners on second and third. A ball was hit much easier than Pehlam’s and bounced several times in the infield. St. X’s second baseman seemed to be close to second base and the ball got through the infield for the go ahead run.

That's a good point because Fidanze is a very young Junior and could play 16U ball this summer. Maile hits the ball very well. I believe he will hit very well in the SEC, which may be the toughest baseball conference in America. Maile has a great athletic frame. I wonder, though, if Maile might play another position than catcher at U of K? Didn't Corey Farris do that? I thought that Fidanza's pop time as well as arm strength might be better than Maile's. Is Maile 19 years old now? Maile will have a lot of success at U of K. I wish him the very best.

With all due respect to Maile, John Fidanza is the best defensive catcher in the state.

If Covington Catholic would win the state title, Maile would hands down be MR. Baseball. I just wonder that the team that wins state could put a player on that time in prime position to be Mr. Baseball.

Any details?

Well, said, Roc....