Turning the corner
New batting

practice produces

big results
By Steve Behr
sports@wataugademocrat.com

Watauga baseball coach Pete Hardee knew several things about his team last week.

For starters, he knows he has a good pitching staff. Even if one pitcher struggles, he’s received solid efforts from his bullpen.

But Hardee also knew that his offense had not been producing enough runs to win games. An example, the Pioneers got decent pitching from Tyler Moore, Mitch Minford and Jon Sharpe, but still lost to McDowell 3-1 last Tuesday.

Lastly, Hardee knows that most players like batting practice over the other types of workouts, mostly because, traditionally, batting is fun.

So, Hardee decided to use an old tactic of instant rewards for hitting line drives in practice. If a Pioneer kept hitting line drives, or at least grounders, they could keep batting.

If not, then the player would step aside.

“They had 15 minutes per group to hit,” Hardee explained. “They had 12 swings and they could take as many rounds as the could in 15 minutes. As soon as they popped one up, they were out of the cage. We had a few hitters only get six swings in 15 minutes, but that showed them why — we’ve hit several balls good, but outfielders run them down on the warning track and in the outfield. We’ve got to hit line drives and ground balls. (Friday) we had several ground balls we hit that were not fielded.”

They didn’t have to do push-ups, like Wesley Snipes did in the movie “Major League.” But the incentive to hit line drives was enough to get some of the most productive workouts of the season. They led to the Pioneers having their best offensive day of the season in their 14-4 victory over A.C. Reynolds last Friday.

“Coach made us go through batting practice all week and we were not allowed to hit pop flies,” Watauga right fielder Trey Lowder said following the A.C. Reynolds game. “We were doing it all week and it came through for us.”

True, the Pioneers beat West Wilkes 17-1 in the second game of the season. But last Friday, Watauga jumped A.C. Reynolds starter Jeremy Sluder by reaching base five straight times.

Of those trips to the plate, three Pioneers — Cal Hardee, Adam Church and Lowder — all hit doubles. When Sluder was pulled in favor of Ryan Jones, Trey Dunnigan, Tyler Moore each hit singles. Leadoff batter Ethan Moyer, batting for the second time in the inning, drove in a run with a double.

“I think we were just picking up the ball better as a team,” Lowder said. “We took a bunch of cuts this week just trying to get better and it really worked out for us.”

By the time the Pioneers were finished, they scored eight runs in the inning, the most they have posted in a single inning since that West Wilkes game. In fact, it was the most runs they had scored in a conference game.

Watauga went on to get a two-run home run from Lowder, a two-run shot from Dunnigan and a solo home run from Church, which proved the 14th run of the game and ended the game because of the 10-run mercy rule.

“We hit the ball one-through-nine tonight,” Church said. “We’ve been working on it in practice, believing it. Coach Hardee was telling us to stick with it and we’ll be successful.”

Leading by as much as 11-3 early in the game helped Watauga pitcher Jon Sharpe. The junior, who is 5-1 this year, was able to pitch with a big lead, and didn’t have to worry if the Rockets scored a couple of runs.

It was different during the first meeting. The Pioneers saw a 3-0 lead, in the sixth inning, go up in smoke as Reynolds claimed a 4-3 victory in Asheville.

“I really didn’t (pitch) my game tonight, but luckily the hitters bailed me out,” Sharp said. “The defense also played great behind me.”