s/e district season

In AA around the region, the game of the year may be the early season matchup between Smithfield and Grafton. Smithfield will most likely throw Josh Eason (Bound for NSU) and Grafton is likely to throw Robert Poutier (Bound for UVA). These two teams should battle, along with Poqouson, for the 1-2-3 spots in the Bay Rivers district.

Hickory, all though they have lost a lot of players to other schools, will still be pretty tough to beat with the 1-2 tandem of Mark Beppler and Greg Early. These two lefties can tantalize opposing batters like no other pitchers I have seen. Beppler has 3 solid pitches and great control. Early, also has 3 solid pitches. Many would describe these pitches as slow, slower, and slowest, but he does a great job mixing up his high 60s Fastball, and 56 mph changeup, with a good curveball/slider.
Goodluck to all the players and teams.

are you serious about a pitcher with a fastball in the upper 60s and a 56 mph change? slow can be deceiving but any decent team will get to him and eventually rip his ****. am i the only one who feels like this?

I know it sounds crazy but I heard a statistic that he gave up like 1 run all fall pitching for the Tidewater White Sox who play some pretty good competition.

Hitting is all about timing. Pitching is about disrupting the timing of the hitter. You have no idea how hard it is to hit really slow pitching if all you've been seeing is higher velocity.

I'll add my two cents worth.
On paper W.B. would be the team to beat w/ three deep in pitching (which is probably more than most in the district have) Pond & Olsen both swing a pretty good stick.
G.B. lost a lot but Coach Lee will get the most out of what he's got & they still have the best junior in the country in Upton.
D. Creek will be tough w/ Phelps & if they've got a few other arms & can score a few runs will be in the hunt.
I.R. should battle in most of their games because they usually hit & Coach West will get the most out of his group too.
Hickory should be able to be in the mix w/ the arms they have but they too may have trouble scoring runs.
Perhaps someone else more familiar than I can comment on O.S., Lakeland, N.R.
With the parity in the S/E district this year it should make for an interesting season. Good luck to all.

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It may be true that Greg Early "shut down" people this fall on the White Sox, and nothing against him, but he won't have their defense in the field and i've seen where slower pitchers have a lot of sucess against higher quality or players because they are used to seein 80+ pitching, but they get handled vs just an average HS team because most HS teams can't handle kids who throw much gas....
Early is a competitor, and should be fine, but i think Hickory's problem will be how their attitudes will be this year, also team chemistry.

For those of you who doubt the effect of slow/slower/slowest pitching, talk to Hank Kraft at Ocean Lakes. In the early 90's, he pitched the Citadel to the College World Series with an 80 mph FB (with a strong tailwind). At the CWS, he beat Cal State Fullerton and kept LSU off balance in a loss.

He also set the SoCon all-time record for Saves.

Lakeland will be a tough team to beat this year with 10 seniors on the team. Decent hitting ball club and can put runs on the board. For pitching all I know that they have is Robert Hedricks who throws mid 80s not a bad curve but can get outs. Will compete in this district.