Cobra baseball a contender in Region 6-AA | Sports | Our Gazette

Printer friendly version |

E-mail to a friend |

Cobra baseball a contender in Region 6-AA

Published Wednesday, April 22, 2009 11:55 AM

By Roger Lee
The Gazette

Roger Lee/Gazette

Cane Bay’s Kyle Spearman stands at the plate.

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.”

Comments

Notice about comments:

Ourgazette.com is pleased to offer readers the enhanced ability to comment on stories. We expect our readers to engage in lively, yet civil discourse. Ourgazette.com does not edit user submitted statements and we cannot promise that readers will not occasionally find offensive or inaccurate comments posted in the comments area. Responsibility for the statements posted lies with the person submitting the comment, not Ourgazette.com. If you find a comment that is objectionable, please click "report abuse" and we will review it for possible removal. Please be reminded, however, that in accordance with our Terms of Use and federal law, we are under no obligation to remove any third party comments posted on our website.

Users can now build user-to-user connections, follow friends' recent posts, add an avatar that fits their personality, and more. If you have posted here before you'll need to sign up again, or if you've never posted before, start now by reading our terms and conditions, and then signing up below!

Full terms and conditions can be read here.

Most Viewed
Most Commented

104 East Doty Avenue | Summerville, SC 29483 | 843-572-0511 office