Sat Feb 11 2012
Since moving outdoors to Capitol View Park, the practice itinerary for the Frankfort High baseball team has looked something like this:
1. Hitting
2. More hitting
3. Even more hitting
Needless to say, the Panthers are working to be sharp in at least one aspect of the game before their season opener at home against Bardstown on March 22.
“The last couple years we’ve been fairly decent on the mound, we’ve been solid on defense but our hitting has been just sub-par,” FHS coach Anthony Russell said.
“We spent a lot of time in the gym earlier this year when the weather was bad working on defense so we’ve been focusing mostly on hitting since moving to the field. Eighty percent of what we’ve been doing lately has been hitting.”
Putting the ball in play was an issue at times for FHS last season. The Panthers were held to two runs or less in 13 games last year and finished with a 10-17 record. With six returning starters, including team hits leader Aaron Cunningham, and three of last season’s top pitchers returning this year, Frankfort is hoping experience will lead to improved results.
“We lost a couple of our power guys in Micah Goff and Josh McPherson, but we’ll play a lot of small ball, a lot of doubles, a lot of singles and we are fast,” Russell said. “If we can put the ball in play we can utilize our speed to our advantage.”
The pitching staff is headlined by seniors Ethan Williams, Zack Wilson and Jacob Clark, who all spent ample time on the mound last year. Other seniors on the team include Cameron Russell, Marcus Washington and Aaron Hall.
Russell said either Williams or Wilson will get the start next week to open the home stand.
“Zack does a real good job locating his pitches, Ethan has a little bit more speed,” Russell said. “Both of them have worked really hard over the winter and developed some off-speed stuff as well.”
With six games in the season’s opening week, including Western Hills on March 24, the pitching staff will be held to a tight pitch count.
“Early in the year we load up on the schedule thinking some will get rained out,” Russell said. “We don’t want to wear our arms out early. We’ll probably go three or four pitchers most every game.”
Weather permitting, the Panthers should find out pretty quickly whether their extra work with the bats has paid off.
“We’ll see what we’re made of,” Russell said.
March 22 Bardstown, 5:30 p.m. March 23 Burgin, 5:30 p.m. March 24 Western Hills, 5:30 p.m. March 26 Madison Southern, 5:30 p.m. March 27 Central, 2:30 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. March 29 Fern Creek, 5:30 p.m. April 2 at Williamstown, 6 p.m. April 12 Woodford Co., 5:30 p.m. April 13 Franklin Co., 5:30 p.m. April 14 Western Hills, 5:30 p.m. April 20 at Paris, 5:30 p.m. April 21 at Woodford Co., 5:30 p.m. April 23 at Bracken Co., 5:45 p.m. April 26 Owen Co., 5:30 p.m. April 27 at Madison Southern, 5:30 p.m. April 28 at Franklin Co., 5:30 p.m. April 30 Mad. Central, 5:30 p.m. May 3 at Sayre, 5:30 p.m. May 4 at Moore, 5:30 p.m. May 8 at Fort Knox, 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. May 10 at Bardstown, 5:30 p.m. May 13 Eminence, 5:30 p.m. May 14 at Berea, 5:30 p.m. May 15 at Model, 3:30 p.m. May 18 at Owen Co., 5:30 p.m. May 19 Trimble Co., 5:30 p.m. May 20 Williamstown, 6 p.m. May 21 Silver Grove, 6:30 p.m.Panther Baseball Schedule
Comments
By Posting to this site, you agree to our Terms of Service Be polite.
Inappropriate posts may be removed.
State-Journal.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post.
Login above or Register to comment.
0 Total Comments Home | Back
Copyright Frankfort Publishing Co., LLC 1995-2011. All Rights Reserved.
Content may not be republished without the expressed written consent of the publisher.
Content may not be republished without the expressed written consent of the publisher.
Dix Communications