2004

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mound Regarding top freshmen, Yarborough said Jonathan Booker (Bhiladelphia) and Lucas Poole (Newton) "are also competing for the start– ing rotation," and Marcus Davis (Magee) has been "very impressive swinging the bat." He added Mario Thomas (Forest) and Bran– don Ezell (Newton County) should see "a lot of playing time" in the middle infield. Yarborough said his team is ready to begin the "real" season, especially after com– pleting a successful fall cam– paign.

RBis.

for the game. We should be more athletic this year: Our outfielders have good speed with arm strength. We are fundamental in the infield. Our catchers are tough behind the plate. Our pitch· ing staff consists of six sophomores and seven fresh– men. Our key to success lies with defense and pitching." Top offensive returnees and their respective batting averages from 2003 include Drew Kenna of Forest, .392; Dexter Sellers of Bastrop, La., .320; and Michael Dtum of Pascago\}la, who hit .287 with six hdlne runs and 30

riors to a 21-21 mark last sea– son. They were one game away from making the state playoffs, a goal Yarborough expects his team to reach this year. "We have several returnees from last year mcluding six starters in the field and two pitchers. Our sophomores know how tough our schedule is and we expect them to give us lead– ership," Yarborough said. Regarding the team.s strengths, Yarborough made the following observation: "I think our team has a strong work ethic and a love

Destin of Kosciusko collected 24 RBis. (Kenna, team co-captain with pitcher Jim Tally; sus– tained a broken left arm during practice on January 29 and will be out of action for approximately eight weeks.) Tally; a product of Moore– ville High School in Saltillo, leads returning pitchers with a &2 record. Tally and fellow sophomores Brent McMillan of Newton and Hunter Holley of Philadel– phia are competing for the starting rotation on the Moore