Tiger baseball starting fresh in 2014
For the first time in seven years, James Moody will play the role of head coach of the Demopolis High School baseball team when the Tigers travel to Sweet Water at 4 p.m. today.
“It’s like I’ve never done it in my life. It really is,” Moody, who spent the last five seasons working as a Demopolis assistant, said of the transition back to the top role. “It has been seven years and I had really become comfortable in the role I was in here for five and the role I was in at Trinity for two. Every day it is something new. Something new comes up that just is a reminder of the things that the head coach has to do that a lot of times have nothing to do with on-field baseball. It has kind of almost new and I’m glad it is.”
Just as Moody is adjusting to new territory in his role with the team, so too will many of his 2014 players be acclimating to unfamiliar landscape.
The Tigers return just four players who saw significant time on the varsity squad a season ago. Matt Eicher returns as the incumbent starting second baseman. Stephen Stewart will be behind the plate most of the time for the Tigers. Michael Brooker will spend be the primary left fielder while Tyler Oates mans the hot corner at third.
Those four seniors will be charged with leading a team that consists unproven talents throughout the roster.
“They need to play to kind of find out where they are and so we can find out where they are,” Moody said of what his younger players need the most as the season opens. “You can’t put a price on repetition and game experience. We’re going to put them out there and let them go and see what happens.”
John Anthony Morrison and Luke Yelverton will split time at first base while Jacob Rodrigues backs up Stewart behind the plate.
The remainder of the outfield will be covered by Seth Aiken, Tripp Perry and Ryan Schroeder.
As for the pitching staff, the senior quartet of Oates, Eicher, Brooker and Stewart return as the Tigers’ most experienced on the mound as well.
While the Tigers largely adopted a mound-by-committee approach for the majority of the 2013 season, Moody is hopeful that innings eaters will emerge for the Tigers this season.
“It’ll probably be close to the same early. We’re planning on throwing four guys (Monday against Sweet Water) and four guys (Tuesday against American Christian Academy),” Moody said. “But I hope over time we’ve got a couple of arms that we can run out there to help us for four, five or six innings. They’re young though and we’ll have to see how they’ll mature as the season goes along.”
The Tigers were able to turn to Mason Rogers in the closer’s role a season ago, watching the Lurleen B. Wallace Community College signee to become nearly automatic in save situations.
Demopolis will gave that opportunity to another senior this year as it look allow Stewart to lock down saves in 2014.
“Stewart threw some big innings for us in setup roles last year,” Moody said. “We’ll look to give him a bigger role this year, maybe let him try to close some games and see how that works out and just go from there.”
And while the 2014 season opens and plenty of questions still abound for the Demopolis High Tigers, Moody does know exactly what he will require from his players.
“I think the first thing that I want anybody we play to be able to say is that we play hard, we don’t beat ourselves and we give ourselves a chance to win. If you can do that, regardless of your talent level, you’ll have a chance,” Moody said. “To play hard and play the game right and play the way it is supposed to be played, and to respect the game. Respect what it is about and how humbling a game it can be for you.”