Diamond Packers open on Monday

Published 10:46 pm Thursday, February 23, 2006

MOULTRIE — Colquitt County baseball coach Jerry Croft has scheduled his annual “100 innings” event for Saturday, but with forecasts calling for 100 percent chance of rain that day, the Packers may not be able to play that day.

And Croft would like to see what will be a young and inexperienced team get a few more at bats and a few more innings on the mound before Monday’s 5:30 p.m. season-opener against Worth County in the Hornet Classic in Adel.

Croft, starting his 30th season as the Packers head coach, has fewer than 30 innings of experience among his top pitching prospects and is looking for a new catcher, first baseman and shortstop.

Juniors Andrew Wallace and Carter Jones and seniors Scotty DeMott, Marshall Faircloth and Sam Heath are the most experienced players the Packers have back from last year’s 15-12 team that was bounced from the state playoffs in the first round by Glynn Academy.

“Those five guys give us a nucleus of experience,” Croft said Thursday as his team went through a scrimmage at Ike Aultman Field with umpires Bobby Davis and Rick Gehle calling the game.

“We can build on that if they’ll give us some leadership.”

With the opener looming, Croft has not settled his varsity roster, although it will include six seniors and eight juniors.

The seniors include DeMott, a third baseman/pitcher; Faircloth, the left fielder; Sam Heath, the center fielder; Chance Pitts, a pitcher/first baseman; and Drew Shealy, who is expected to start at catcher.

The juniors are Jones, who will start at second base; Wallace, who play right field and pitch; Matt Weaver, a pitcher/outfielder; Clay Hartley, utility infielder; Javaris Jackson, outfielder; Tyler Perryman, pitcher/first baseman; Spencer Richardson, catcher; and Marcus Stancil, first baseman.

Croft has 18 sophomores at his disposal. Left-handed pitcher Andrew McDowell will dress with the varsity and several others are likely to as well.

The other sophomores, most of whom will primarily be junior varsity players, are Nathan Cashwell, Blake Cato, Ben Cauthen, Michael Connell, Anthony Cortes, Justin Crawley, Caleb English, Cam Fitzgerald, Jarvis Lambright, Austin McAlpin, Cody McLean, Patrick Taylor, Drew Tillery, Corey Tucker, Stephen Tyus, Bo Williams and Nathan Yost.

The freshmen players are Kody Akridge, Michael Amore, Cam Anderson, Jebb Cato, Judd Cato, Andrew Clark, Clark Coleman, Justin Fowler, Scotty Green, Corey Hancock, John Michael Harrison, McClellan Mobley, William Mark Oliver, Chris Phillips and Adam Stanfill.

Timothy Miller is the manager.

Croft’s staff will again include pitching coach Keith Croft, hitting coach Marlon Daniels and catching coach Will Stuckey.

Craig Pitts, Greg Tillery and Daniel Dalton again will work with the ninth-grade and junior varsity teams.