A Championship Recap...

TUPELO – After notching two quick outs in the bottom of the sixth, Matt Rodgers stared from the mound towards the opposing batter. He needed just one more strike to ensure that the BancorpSouth Bombers would remain undefeated and push more distance between themselves and the remainder of teams in the standings.

At the plate, Tucker Watts represented the tying run in the 8-6 contest. Rodgers wound up and tossed strike three just past Watts’ swing, causing catcher Drew White to emerge from behind the plate to celebrate with his battery-mate.

It was just that kind of year for the Bombers, a team that finished with an unblemished 10-0 mark in 11-12-year-old recreational Dizzy Dean play in Tupelo. The squad outscored opponents 84-29 in the rain-shortened campaign, never trailing and only finding themselves tied once – in the contest alluded to earlier with Thornton Dental Services on June 10.

“We concentrated on the little things all year, and I don’t think we could have assembled a better roster to handle everything we threw at them as coaches,” manager Chris Rushing said. “I can’t begin to explain how proud I am of these young men. They will be able to walk away from this season with something I was never able to achieve at any level of baseball – a championship.”

The Bombers wrapped up their league crown with a 13-4 triumph over Frankie Blackmon Chevrolet on Monday, June 23, in a contest originally scheduled for May 27. Rainouts caused havoc throughout all age groups in the park and recreational system this summer, something Rushing points to when continuing to praise his team’s efforts and focus.

“We went a month and played only one game – a whole calendar month,” Rushing said. “It felt like I had to re-introduce myself to the guys three or four times this year. Every time we took that field, it was like the chemistry had never been disbanded. They remembered everything from our practices and continued to play together despite all the down time. This definitely gave us a mental edge, more so than our record that may have preceded us in games.”

A steady force for his teammates all season, ace pitcher Ty Wheeler amassed a 6-0 record, racking up 49 strikeouts while limiting the opposition with a 1.36 ERA in 18.1 innings. None of his six wins were bigger, however, than his no-hitter against the Braves on June 9, giving the Bombers first-place outright atop the standings. Rodgers, the team’s other option on the mound, held his own, going 4-0 with a save and averaging just over one strikeout per inning pitched (19 in 15.2 IP).

The coaching staff preached baserunning from the first day of practice in late March, and the Bombers showed practice makes perfect with a staggering total of 144 swipes on the season. Most often out of the leadoff spot in the order, 11-year-old Cameron Montgomery led the roster with 21 steals and 12 runs scored.

The team started its run to a championship with a 5-1 victory over the Braves in the season-opener, the first of two epic matchups between the park’s first- and second-place teams. Justin Turnage, the Bombers’ primary option in center field, delivered the big blow with a two-run double in the third inning to extend the Bombers’ lead to 4-1, sealing the victory.

For an encore, the Bombers cruised to wins over Carlock Toyota (13-6), Frankie Blackmon Chevrolet (8-1) and the Kiwanis Club (11-5). Following the first of two rainouts of the season, BXS wrapped up the non-standings portion of the schedule with an 11-2 victory over Whitaker Sales.

In the rain-plagued second half, the Bombers picked up where they left off with an 11-2 win over Kiwanis, setting the stage for the fast-paced ending of previously-mentioned contests with the Braves, Thornton and Frankie Blackmon Chevrolet.

“Our entire roster contributed this season, and it made everything that much more fun,” Rushing added. “It’s easy to get fired up to come out here and coach when you have the parents and players that we were blessed with this season. While we never displayed a ‘win-at-all costs’ mentality, these guys had a refusal to lose that you cannot teach or coach.”

The Bombers are as follows: Silas Betts, Luke Dixon, Hayes Hershfelt, Montgomery, Noel Morgan, Rodgers, Carter Trousdale, Turnage, Wheeler, White, Austin Yarber and Evan Yarber. Assisting Rushing were coaches Jerry Rodgers, Mark Dixon and David Wheeler.

Fun all summer long...

So Auburn made the baseball hire, one that I think is good for the university. John Pawlowski will venture from College of Charleston to take over the sleeping giant that is Auburn baseball (Kendall Rogers' words on Rivals.com - not mine), bringing with him extensive pitching knowledge and expertise garnered from his previous stops at Arizona State, Clemson and the Show. I'm excited to think about what he's going to do working with kids like Cory Luckie and Grant Dayton.

While Pawlowski is an obvious improvement over what we had and brings legitimate hype to next year's team, I still think with the money we're giving this guy ($300K/season with tons of bonuses and incentives) could have led to someone with just a little more tournament experience than what he brings to the table. At the same time, he has CoC expecting to make it to NCAA regionals after building that program from scratch - something he won't have to do at AU. To sum it up, he's a good (possibly very good) hire, but I was holding out hope for a great one. I'll support this guy though, and everything I've heard from friends who have spent time with him at CoC is positive.

My regular season team, the Bombers, wraps up the season either tomorrow or Tuesday. I'm going to hate giving up this team. They've been a blast to coach and hang around. We're going to celebrate our regular season championship with t-shirts, pizza and trophies following Monday night's game. (I'm trying to convince the opposing coach from our Tuesday game to play us Monday night so we can get it over with.) They have no idea its coming.

My all-star team qualified for state with a 3-2 record at the district tournament, falling short 17-16 on Friday evening in the third-place game. We got better as the week went on, and I think we have the ability to make some noise in the state tournament if the bats follow them to Pontotoc. I feel pretty good about the pitching staff, seven of eight defensive spots and our offense. Unfortunately, we had one player quit due to playing time but I feel pretty good going with what we have.

So with this whole baseball coaching thing, I had two main goals for myself heading into April: 1.) win the regular season title and 2.) coach a team to the state tournament in all-stars. It feels good to achieve those two milestones, and I couldn't be prouder of this group of kids that have made these dreams a reality for this Mississippi boy.

What a summer...As always, thanks for reading and War Eagle.

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7-3...I love winning.

I was never part of the best team in the league when I was growing up playing baseball. We would sometimes get to within a game or two of the league crown, but we always lost to the team that would end up winning it one too many times (or we were terrible).

My little league regular season team took sole possession of first place atop the standings with our 7-3 win over Gary's team. Did I get a little too much glee in winning that game? Yep. What I saw on that field was nine 11-12-year-old boys that believed in themselves (and their pitcher) to get the W.

I have a ton of great stories from tonight, but I'm too burned out to type them all on here. If any of my players are reading this, you guys are 100 percent deserving of that win, and I can't wait to get those trophies to you showing all your accomplishments after our last game together.

War Eagle, and go Bombers.

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Fulfilling a childhood dream...

In the final weekend of July, I'll be going to Chicago with my dad to go see a couple of games at Wrigley Field. To say that I'm pumped is an understatement. For the Friday afternoon contest with the Florida Marlins, dad and I have corporate seats (thanks to one of our vendors at BancorpSouth), which are located on the fifth row up from the Cubs' bullpen area. I'm currently winning a bid on ebay to secure two bleacher seats for the Saturday game.

http://chiblogo.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/bad-seats-in-the-house/

The above blog offers an assessment of each seating area in the stadium. In case you were wondering, our seats for Friday are described as "excellent seats." It truly isn't what you know in this life; it's who you know.

Unfortunately, the stadium is not offering any tours while we are up there since all the games are afternoon affairs. One other item on the agenda is to take the river boat tour of the city. It's going to be a blast.

War Eagle.

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A quick update...

We had our first all-star practice. We have a lot of bats, which should help offset the drop off in pitching we might experience from last year's group. I think the group has a good chance at being really good in the field after a few practices and getting the chemistry down. One thing we're going to stress as a coaching staff is teamwork, teamwork, teamwork. They're getting the gist of it, but we're still a LONG way from being as good as we're capable of being.

I went to Little Rock this past weekend to spend some time with my second family, the Monroes. I can't put into words how heartfelt I am to have such a loving and supportive family open their arms to this Mississippi boy since I first became friends with Andrew at Auburn. Their hospitality is second-to-none. Thanks again, you guys.

Tommy Tuberville went overseas with a group of coaches to spend some time with our armed forces. (Included in this group is Jack Siedlecki from Yale, one of Natalie's new bosses.) I don't think I have to go into much detail to express how awesome it is to have Tuberville represent Auburn in such a strong, positive fashion. One of my favorite people in the AU athletic department, Todd Van Emst, was Tuberville's extra on the trip. What an amazing experience, all around.

I don't like Notre Dame, and I don't like Penn State. However, I am a bigger fan of Joe Paterno and Charlie Weis after hearing some of their comments the past couple of weeks. Paterno went out of his way to mention Auburn as a reason to have a playoff and called it "silly" that there's not a plan in place to protect a team as good as the one we had in 2004 from getting shafted in the future. Weis has crept up my list of favorite NCAA coaches for his involvement in the trip overseas and his little jabs at Alabama fans on Birmingham radio. Good stuff from two of college football's most influential figureheads and voices.

Auburn's baseball coaching search should produce a top-notch hire. If we end up with someone that is just going to be in the same situation four years from now that Tom Slater found himself, I don't know how supportive I can be of this program. I mean, we have the facilities, we have the top-notch talent, and we have a much-better situation administration-wise than following the 2004 season. Big names will want this job. We shouldn't have to settle for anyone, and that goes for Mississippi State as well. (Sorry, Tommy Raffo.)

That's all for now. Once again, thanks for reading and all supportive thoughts and comments people have left here. War Eagle, everyone.

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