The Franklin-Simpson Wildcats’ baseball team enters the 2023 season as one of the youngest baseball teams in the 4th Region. They are a confident young group that has been working hard for the upcoming season.
“Workouts have been great,” Wildcats’ head coach Matt Wilhite said. “It’s been fun to be around them. They work hard, get after it, and are a lot of fun to be with every day. There is a lot of inexperience on this team. We have some guys that have a little varsity experience and a bunch of JV guys that got into a few games. I think we are talented. We will take some lumps in the beginning as we will be learning but I think we will get to where we need to be at the end of the year.”
Carmine Cook and Brevin Scott return as the only pitchers with some varsity experience. Wilhite will also look toward Gavin Link and John West to be in the starting rotation.
“Starting pitchers for the most part will look like those four,” Wilhite said. “They may go a little longer but then we will have guys like Kody Alexander, Garrett Sadler, and Colten Wilson that will come in for relief. The biggest thing is to throw strikes. Throw strikes to get some ground balls and then it is on us to make plays. Do that and limit your walks to give yourself a chance to win.”
Last season offensively, the Wildcats were getting on base and scoring by playing “small ball”by bunting, stealing along with executing hit-and-run situations.
“We are going to be doing that a lot more times this year,” Wilgite said. ”We start every day with bunting to make sure we know how to get bunts down. We don’t have much offense coming back from last season and we don’t have that Dalton Fiveash kind of player who can put the ball in the gaps so this is what we are going to have to do. We have to find ways to get on base whether it is with hit and run situations, steal bases, we will have to get that done.”
Wilhite has put together a challenging schedule for his team. He feels like in order for them to grow, develop and become a better ball team, they need to play top-quality competition so that they can learn as much as they can from them and hopefully will get them to play their best baseball by early May.
“To get to where we need to be at the end of the year, we got to play the very best in our region and around the area,” Wilhite said. “Wins and losses are what they are but the goal is to be playing better throughout the year. The district coaches all agreed that we should play our district games back to back. It will be more competitive and we won’t have to throw our top guys against them every time we play.”
Wilgite’s goal for his team is simple… ”Get better each and every day.” He feels like if his team can do that each and every day, he feels like his team will have a chance in the district and be in the hunt for a region championship in the region tournament.
WILDCATS ROSTER#1 Garrett Sadler Junior
#2 Colton Wilson Junior
#3 Layne Alford Sophomore
#4 Gunner Key Junior
#5 Hunter Jones Junior
#6 Logan Knight Freshman
#7 Brady Delk Freshman
#8 Brevin Scott Junior
#9 Payton Brown Junior
#10 John West Junior
#12 Colin Anderson Sophomore
#13 Cameron Cook Junior
#14 Gunner Holland Sophomore
#15 Hayden Satterly Junior
#16 Kody Alexander Junior
#20 Griff Banton Sophomore
#22 Gavin Link Sophomore
JV
#4 Max Wren Freshman
#5 Dylan Fiveash Freshman
#8 Abel Stevens Junior
#9 Mason Davis Sophomore
#12 Gavin Vice Freshman
#13 Brayden Roberts Sophomore
#16 Alan Johnson Sophomore
Head coach: Matt Wilhite
Assistant coaches: Craig Delk, Colton Hurt, Jack Nealy and Jay Shockley,
WILDCATS SCHEDULE
Mar. 14th at Portland (TN) 5:30 p.m.
Mar. . 15th vs. Butler County 5:30 p.m.
Mar. 17th at Hart County 6 p.m.
Mar. 18th at Taylor County 12 p.m.
Mar. 20th vs. Portland (TN) 5:30 p.m.
Mar. 21st at Warren East 6 p.m.
Mar. 23rd vs. South Warren 5:30 p.m.
Mar. 24th at Ohio County 6 p.m.
Mar. 27th at East Robertson
(Cross Plains, TN) 5:30 p.m.
Mar. 28th vs. Glasgow 5:30 p.m.
Mar. 30th vs. Bowling Green 5:30 p.m.
Apr. 3rd — 6th CAL RIPKEN EXPERIENCE
at Myrtle Beach, SC
Apr. 3rd vs. Andrew Jackson
(Kennesaw, SC) 8:30 a.m.
Apr. 4th vs. Victor (NY) 4 p.m.
Apr. 5th vs. Ocean Township
(Oakhurst, NJ) 11 a.m.
Apr. 6th vs. Centreville
(Clifton, VA) 8:30 a.m.
Apr. 10th at Greenwood 6 p.m.
Apr. 11th at Glasgow 5:30 p.m.
Apr. 13th at South Warren 5:30 p.m.
Apr. 14th vs. East Robertson
(Cross Plains, TN) 5:30 p.m.
Apr. 17th at Todd County Central5:30 p.m.
Apr. 18th vs. Todd County Central5:30 p.m.
Apr. 20th vs. Butler County 7 p.m.
Apr. 21st at Bowling Green 5:30 p.m.
Apr. 24th vs. Logan County5:30 p.m.
Apr. 25th at Logan County5:30 p.m.
Apr. 27th at Barren County 5:30 p.m.
Apr. 28th vs. Allen County-Scottsville 5:30 p.m.
May 1st vs. Russellville5:30 p.m.
May 2nd at Russellville6 p.m.
May 6th vs. Owensboro Catholic 1:30 p.m.
May 8th at Allen County-Scottsville5:30 p.m.
May 9th vs. Warren East 5:30 p.m.
May 11th vs. Greenwood 6 p.m.
May 12th vs. Clinton County 6 p.m.
16th 13TH DISTRICT BASEBALL TOURNAMENT
at Logan County High School TBD
4TH REGION BASEBALL TOURNAMENT
TGD
()- 13th District Games.
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