Devils swing into baseball

The 2009 baseball season officially got under way for Warren County Middle School Thursday when the Screaming Devils travelled to Glascock to take on the Panthers in a double header. The Devils are in their second season of rebuilding the baseball program at Warren County Middle & High School.

"We had very few 8th graders last year", stated head coach Joey Moon. "This year we return a good many players that got a lot of playing time last season. We still have a pretty steep learning curve, but we should be better this year."

The improvement in this year's team was made clear in the first outing for the Devils this season. The Devils dropped both games in the double header, but there were definite signs of improvement over last season. "We look a lot better at certain key positions", commented assistant coach, Fred Blount. Blount continued by saying, "Robert Burns did an excellent job at catcher, especially for his first game at the position."

Coach Swann was impressed with the development of 2nd baseman, Quartavis Cobb. "Quartavis saw a good deal of playing time last season as a 6th grader and you can tell it payed off."

It was apparent that the Devils had a case of opening day jitters in the first game of the evening. The Devils gave up 6 runs in the first inning off of 2 hits, 3 errors and 3 walks. After working through the first inning, the Devils began to relax and show signs of improvement.

After failing to score in the 2nd inning, the Devils only gave up 3 runs in the 2nd. They had a chance to get out of the inning without giving up a run, but once again 2 costly errors allowed Glascock to extend their lead.

The Devils gave up two more runs on a home run by Moore. Torrez Wentz came in to face the last batter when starting pitcher, Damian Clark, began to labor. Wentz got the only batter he faced to ground out to shortstop with the bases loaded.

Warren County's bats came alive in the second game of the evening. After hitting a solid double in the last inning of the first game, Damian Clark followed it up by going 2 for 2 in the second game with a double and a single. The Devils scored 4 runs in the first inning off of hits by Clark, Cortez Wentz, and Torrez Wentz. Deonte Battle and Antorius Kendrick both drew walks.

The second game remained close with the Devils trailing 6-4 until 2 outs in the third inning. Glascock scored 12 runs with 2 outs to put the game away, 18-4.

"We got better after we got the nerves out of the way", stated Moon. "We've just got some things we still need to work on. We've still got a lot of work to do with our pitchers."

The Devils will travel to Wrens Tuesday to take on the Colts. All of Warren County's games will be played on the road this year due to the condition of the field in Warren County.