ELKMONT BASEBALL BEGINS - DUST DEVIL AT THE DIAMOND

The Elkmont varsity baseball season has started and they have already played four games. The Red Devils'  record stands at 2-2.  Elkmont lost to Brewer 14 - 3, but played without six starters who were still playing basketball.  Elkmont also lost to East Lawrence, 10 - 5, when those six players joined the team and played their first game without any practice.  They were able to get in a couple of days of practice with the full varsity team before their next game.  Since then, the Red Devils have won their next two games; beating Falkville, 17 - 4 and Addison, 12 - 5.  Against Falkville, Cole Glass had three hits and Jared Bailey hit a grand slam.  Tyler Thomas pitched well against Addison picking up the win and the whole line up hit well.


OBSERVATIONS:
The team will be an excellent defensive team.   Both the infield and outfield are solid and the catcher position is strong.  The Red Devils also will be an excellent hitting team with both power and speed.  In particular, the first five batters will be a tough out every time.  Elkmont is well coached.  Coach Holt knows the game and continues to work with the players no matter the score.  


The Dust Devil sees two weaknesses that this team must improve in order to have a winning season and make the playoffs.  The first weakness is the number of strike-outs.  Even though Elkmont is an excellent hitting team and has scored enough runs so far, but good varsity teams seldom strike-out and put the ball in play to force the other team to make outs.  The second weakness is pitching.  The Red Devils have several good pitchers but none are dominate yet.  Ben Ferguson, Tyler Thomas, Michael Haney and Skyler Gant have the potential to become that top level pitcher.


PREDICTION:
The Dust Devil believes that Elkmont will be a fun team to watch and hitting and defense will be the strength of the team.  He also believes that the strike-outs will be reduced as the players get more practice.  The real question is the pitching.  The Dust Devil is going to watch a few more games before predicting if the Elkmont Red Devils will have a winning season or make the playoffs.