Baseball Preview
Gilmer High School returns to the baseball diamond in 2020 with a new batch of varsity starters.
GHS graduated seven seniors off last year’s team that finished the season with a 10-14 record.
With the loss of its entire infield, two outfielders and its most experienced pitchers, Gilmer started preparations for this year’s campaign five months ago in mid-September. Parent volunteers were in charge of the workouts because it was too early in the calender for coaches to conduct practices.
Through October, the Bobcats worked a few days per week getting their arms in shape, hitting in the batting cages and playing intrasquad scrimmages.
Head coach Jeff Thurman arrived on the scene in the second week of November after his football assistant duties concluded. During November and December, teams are not permitted to have “full team practices,” but instead, Thurman and each assistant coach were able to work with four players at a time.
Players were divided into groups and continued to focus on basics such as fielding, throwing, hitting and base running. Most are able to lift weights during the school day, so Thurman and staff used the preseason to concentrate on baseball activities.
“We’ve got most of them in weight training, so they’re able to lift during the day,” Thurman said. “During the fall, we try and get them up here to let them throw and hit and keep them interested so once we do start up they don’t have to work as hard to get back to where they need to be.”
After Christmas, pitching coach Justin Clutter accepted a teaching and coaching position in Alabama, and Thurman had to reorganize his staff on short notice.
“It really left us with the need to fill that void,” Thurman said. “Over the past couple years, I’ve focused on the infield as the head coach, coaching third base and overseeing the entire program. During that time, I sort of took my hands off the pitching.
“After meeting with our coaches, I came to the conclusion that I needed to take over the pitchers. I think that’s helped us out, and we’ve seen some big gains with our pitching staff in terms of our command and confidence.”
Todd Gibson returns as an assistant from last year. Matt Banks is back as a GHS assistant following an 11-year hiatus. After taking a short break, he spent three years as head coach at Clear Creek. New to the staff is Scott DeGraff.
The first official day of practice was Jan. 13, and there are currently 27 players in the program. Thurman has revamped the way the team approaches practices. Position players and pitchers are now split into separate groups to focus on specific drills and activities.
“In the past, we haven’t always been a pitcher-first practice team,” Thurman said. “We probably fall into what a lot of high school teams do because the (limited) amount of coaches and time. Pitching is the most important part of baseball, even at the high school level. I think our players have bought into being a pitcher-first team.”
The most experienced returning pitcher from a season ago is junior Jess Buckner. Also taking the mound will be seniors Tyler Wright and Zach Miller, junior Jake Rhodes and sophomores Seth Darling and Blake Zabala.
“We’re not going to have anyone who goes out there and throws 90-plus (miles per hour),” Thurman said. “We’ll face some teams who can do that, but I feel like we have a lot of guys we can roll out there on the mound, and I think they’ve got the confidence. I’m looking forward to seeing if that’s going to help us this year because it’s been a priority.”
Thurman discussed some players who will fill defensive positions and said senior Jace McClure and Rhodes will play first base, and sophomore Branson Teague will take the field at second. Buckner or Zabala will play shortstop, and sophomore Spencer Merritt and junior Ashton White will split time at third base.
Junior catcher Gabe Wolfson lettered a season ago and will return to the position.
Wright and Darling will play center field, and seniors Levi Marshall and Sam Davis will see time in left, as will junior Spenser Smith. Miller has been tabbed as Gilmer’s right fielder.
“I’m pretty satisfied where our defense is,” Thurman said. “We’ve got some holes to fill as we did lose a lot of seniors. Some of those seniors had been starters for a couple years and some were starters since their sophomore season. It does hurt losing them, and we’re going to have some juniors and sophomores who need to step up. We have five seniors, but only two of them have had significant varsity experience.
“A big concern right now is offense. In our team scrimmage, we only scored three or four runs. Hitting is usually behind at this stage of the season, but we’ve got to be a lot better offensively to compete in our region. I think it’s going to come, but it’s going to take some time.”
GHS has a 30-game schedule and will play each region team three times. Once the region schedule gets underway, teams will only face one opponent per week for a three-game series.
Thurman expects Northwest Whitfield, Heritage and Pickens to be the region’s top teams. To reach the state playoffs, GHS will need to be one of the top-four teams in the standings at the end of the regular season. Thurman discussed what the Bobcats need to do to make a postseason push.
“We’ve got to do a better job at having a fast start,” he said. “We’ve got to do a better job at winning a game or two in a series against a team like Heritage, Pickens or Northwest. That’s been our downfall the last couple seasons.
“We’ll win a series against LaFayette or Southeast, but then we’ll get in a series against Northwest, Heritage and Pickens and get swept. Even if it’s just taking one out of three games, we have to find a way to do that.”
The Bobcats have dealt with some uncooperative weather in the first weeks of the season. Gilmer’s scrimmage against Chattooga last Friday was rained out, as was its season opener Monday versus Lumpkin County.
Weather permitting, GHS will host Darlington Wednesday at 5 p.m. and travel to Fannin Friday for a 5:30 p.m. game.