{"id":3293,"date":"2011-11-30T14:45:01","date_gmt":"2011-11-30T20:45:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/?p=3293"},"modified":"2012-04-07T19:38:33","modified_gmt":"2012-04-08T01:38:33","slug":"3293","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/?p=3293","title":{"rendered":"Where are expectations for Lion baseball this year?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>After last year’s heartbreaking loss to Jacksonville in the 6A state championship game, the Searcy Lions baseball squad has begun preparations for a new season with a new group of players. \u00a0Tryouts began taking place the week after students returned from their Thanksgiving holiday, and practice begins as soon as the final team is set.<\/p>\n

Tryouts will be a tad different this time around, however. \u00a0Last year’s Lion team, which made it all the way to the state finals for the third season in a row, was full of older players with plenty of experience on a varsity level. \u00a0The team boasted twelve seniors total, eight of which were full time starters. \u00a0Three of these seniors went on to play baseball at the collegiate level, and one was drafted in the Major League Baseball draft in the second round by the Cleveland Indians. \u00a0Needless to say, there was no shortage of talent.<\/p>\n

This year, the team has only two players with extensive varsity experience and only four seniors. \u00a0So the question is, what should the expectations be going into a new season with a whole different team?<\/p>\n

Surely the Lions will have to play a different type of baseball than they played last year, when they relied on towering physical specimens with pure talent to carry the team deep into the playoffs. \u00a0That will likely not be the case this year, considering the lack of experience. \u00a0The talent is there, but not in the excessive amounts that the team boasted in previous seasons. \u00a0It is more likely that they will have to play a version of “small ball,” relying more on hustle and grit than raw ability.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It is tough to find an accurate expectation for this year’s squad. \u00a0Their conference, the 6A East, is full of talented teams with returning starting players. \u00a0Jacksonville, last year’s state champion, returns their two best pitchers from last year. \u00a0Mountain Home also returns their number one pitcher, who has already signed to play baseball with the University of Arkansas in one year. \u00a0The Lions have only two pitchers with varsity experience of over 15 innings, both of which are juniors.<\/p>\n

With all of this being said, I expect a successful season from the Lions. \u00a0Yes, I am one of the seniors on the team, but no, I am not one to have unrealistic expectations simply because I am a part of the team. \u00a0I realize that this year will be very different from last year, but I believe we have more kids who are willing to hustle and earn their spots than ever before. \u00a0We feel like we have to prove something. \u00a0Yes, we lost the best graduating class to ever come out of the Searcy program. Yes, we play in a loaded conference. \u00a0But we also know that the group of guys that we have is here to play.<\/p>\n

How successful? I can’t say. \u00a0I’m sure there will be games where we just get beat fair and square, and there will be games where we don’t play our best baseball. \u00a0But it won’t be because of lack of effort or hustle, I can promise you that. \u00a0And don’t be surprised when you see the scrappy Searcy baseball team making a run in the 6A playoffs at the end of the year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After last year’s heartbreaking loss to Jacksonville in the 6A state championship game, the Searcy Lions baseball squad has begun preparations for a new season with a new group of players. \u00a0Tryouts began taking place the week after students returned from their Thanksgiving holiday, and practice begins as soon as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-opinion-and-blogs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3293"}],"version-history":[{"count":16,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3293\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6217,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3293\/revisions\/6217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/searcylionpress.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}