Despite being a startup program, the Cane Bay baseball team has been competitive in its classification.
The Fighting Cobras got out to a 4-10 start in their inaugural season, but won three of their first four region games. The wins came over Burke, Ashley Ridge and Woodland while the loss was to Bishop England.
The start was good enough to move the Cobras, a team comprised exclusively of underclassmen, into second place for Region 6-AA.
“We have a good group of kids,” Cane Bay coach Shane Todd said. “They are young, but they work hard. At times they have been overmatched both physically and in talent, but they always fight and keep after it.
“That is all I can ask for.”
The Cobra roster includes six sophomores, eight freshmen and three eighth-graders. So far sophomore Kyle Spearman and freshmen Quinton Cable and Brandon Hall have the hot bats for the Cobras.
“Those guys sort of set the table at the top of the order for us,” Todd said. “When they are doing well, it gets contagious and the rest of the guys kind of fall in line. On certain nights we’ve hit well, but on other nights we’ve struggled. Overall, we tend to hit the ball when we are aggressive.”
Todd says some of his young players are still adjusting to the speed of varsity baseball. The team has struggled defensively, but he isn’t pessimistic about the rest of the season.
“Pitching has been our biggest weakness so far,” he said. “Our No. 1 pitcher has been pretty solid, but we need to find some consistency in the other starters’ spots.”
In addition to leading the Cobra hitters, Cable is the team’s ace.
“We feel pretty confident behind him,” Todd said. “He throws strikes and keeps us in ball games. We just need to somehow get that confidence when other people are on the mound so we can back them up as well.”
Other members of the team are Kellin Kunkel, Chris Schaefer, Dalton Curry, Tyler Varner, Cody Blewer, Justin Shelton, Ricky Ferrell, Billy Conyers, Josh Helms, Sean Bass, Ty Wilder, Robby Maynor, Devon Hutchinson and Austin Timm.
Before taking over the Cane Bay program, Todd served as an assistant coach at Stratford and as the head coach for Berkeley for two years.  He is optimistic about the future of Cobra baseball.
“We will fight obstacles all year, but as long as the players keep coming back with a positive attitude things will be ok,” he said. “The future looks bright for these guys. When you don’t graduate anyone the first two years, the majority of the team stays together so hopefully in the next year or two the experiences they’ve gained will begin to pay off.”