Summer Baseball tidbits...

Thanks HV!
Earlier this summer he threw a no hitter against the East Cobb Brewers at Engel Stadium in Chattanooga.

Now he has turned it up a notch and lately it has been lights out!

The first game was against high schoolers like himeself but the second game was against a team loaded with players who had already spent a year in college at the JUCO, NAIA and Div I level. They probably had the best team we had played in the last three years.

He simply pitched the best game of his life and had everyone there talking! Several UT Martin Players thought he was throwing close to 90. Add a curve, slider and circle change up and you have a good mix for messing up a batters timing. His summer coach is Glen Hayes who coaches baseball at Bethel College.

A scout from the KC Royals took alot of notes.

Coach Cates and his staff were impressed with our graduating seniors and seniors to be next year. They made our power hitting third baseman an offer and I hope he has the grades because that will make (5) 2004 senior starting players off our high school team playing in college next year. Three of our starters were juniors so that would leave 1 starting senior outfielder who batted .390 unsigned.

We have a junior player on our summer team named Drew Hayes who plays every position on the field and that includes catching. His dad is the coach at Bethel College in McKenzie and his older brother is the baseball coach at Beech high school in Hendersonville. He is built and plays like Tony Delmonico. He is going to be some kind of player except he is good at football too.

Just wondering what the name of your sons team is and if it is out of Paris or Mckenzie or where. My son plays for a 18u traveling team out of Jackson.

Our team is called the Paris Thunder 18U and this is our **(last)** year to have this team together, which started in 1999 when they were 13 years old.

It is the Henry County High School Team(24-9) of 2004 juniors and seniors with one player (Hayes)from McKenzie and one player(Panthoffer) from Lexington Tennessee. This team over the years has played from St. Louis to Panama City Florida. We are lucky because we have 11 players and 8 of them can pitch.

Our season is drawing to an end as we have one tournament left in Donelson(Nashville), and maybe a tournament here in Paris around the 15th of July and a couple other games. We have to decide to end the season in the Dizzy Dean State Tournament in Southaven Mississippi, The USSSA World Series in Nashville, or a Tournament at the University of Auburn in Alabama at the end of July. Then the younger guys will have to go back to high school football workouts.

We had an older team which was started in 1996 but they have all gone on to college and all but three have graduated. John Hehn(Jr) still plays for Christian Brothers, Dustin Summers(Sr.) at UT Martin and Josh Archer(Sr.) at MTSU. That group won two state championships two runner ups and participated in 4 world Series placing 1st,2nd,3rd and 4th representing the state of Tennessee.