Logan Baseball 2013

[moonshine]

I will admit that I did not read the article as of yet concerning last night game! BUT it sounds like the local rag is starting to sugarcoat the game from the headlines! Where is our Jr high baseball program?

[Littlechiefs]

There isn't one. Williams has his 11U travel team. Those are the only kids that age playing right now. They have played 12 games already plus a tournament in Grove City this past weekend. I know they travel to Pickerington Thursday evening and have a double header at Mingo Park on Saturday. They will be playing home games on the weekends from now on. They don't want them interfering with the rec league practices and games. People should go check them out. They have been getting decent crowds. Travel teams usually bring good crowds.

[moonshine]

There isn't one. Williams has his 11U travel team. Those are the only kids that age playing right now. They have played 12 games already plus a tournament in Grove City this past weekend. I know they travel to Pickerington Thursday evening and have a double header at Mingo Park on Saturday. They will be playing home games on the weekends from now on. They don't want them interfering with the rec league practices and games. People should go check them out. They have been getting decent crowds. Travel teams usually bring good crowds.

Thank God for Coach Williams! Let's be real we need a Jr high program in order to compete and develop a winning program!

[doubleplay643]

Keep up the 11U and start one for 9's, 10's and 12's as well because it works.

5-6 years ago some dads in the Jackson area started a couple groups of kids from Jackson, Oak Hill, Wellston and VC out doing this. This year the kids in that program are freshmen and guess what. 2 freshman are in Varsity line-up at Wellston, 1 freshman in Varsity line-up at VC, 1 freshman in the Varsity line-up at Oak Hill 2-4 freshman made the Jackson Varsity squad with 2 of those being starting pitchers and the other couple kids at least dressing and getting a few at bats during non-league games. That group of kids were runners-up and state champions in several USSSA age groups as they went through until high school.

The Jacskon Varsity is 12-4, the JV is 11-1, the 8th grade is undefeated I believe or perhaps a single loss. The program should be able to compete at a high level for the next 5-6 years.

Currently there is an 8U, 10U and a very successful (they won State USSSA as 9's and 10's) 11U program here featuring kids from Jackson, Oak Hill, and Minford areas.

Travel teams play high school rules and play at a high level against some of the best coaching and athletes in their age group in the state and surrounding states. When you do this from April-late June and play upwards of 40 games with kids they get better and get better fast. They know pitching, fielding, catching fundamentals, pick-off moves, base running scenarios and it really is great to watch. Very unlike city recreation league minor/little league.

That is what it will take to have a great program...and some great athletes always helps out.

[Littlechiefs]

Well said and you are correct. In talking to a few of the parents with kids on the team they love it. Travel ball takes dedication from the kids and parents. It's not cheap and of course there is the "travel" aspect. COYBL does a good job keeping the divisions close. Every team in their division is no more than a 90 minute drive. Their division consists of 3 teams from Licking County, Buckeye Lake, Pickerington, Zanesville and Crooksville. Plus they play other COYBL teams from Columbus in non-league games as well as Lancaster (FC Bulldogs) and Athens. I went and watched them play the Athens 12U team and beat them. There were 4 double plays in that game. 2 by each team. Not accidental dp's but 6-4-3 and 5-4-3 types. These kids can play ball. Yes they are 11 and yes they make mistakes but playing "real" baseball at this age is fun to watch. The Athens game went extra innings. Logan finally won in the bottom of the 9th. They had just had to play 8 innings the night before in Licking County. The game was over in under 2 hours. I've watched rec games go 90 minutes and only have 4 innings completed. I hope their are other parents that follow what this team is doing. Maybe then we will be able to compete with teams like Jackson. From what this thread says above our HS team has yet to win a league game. It has to turn around at some point.

[doubleplay643]

Add to the above travel ball the fact that there are at least 20 local kids age 10-13 that take private hitting and pitching lessons from a couple local sources in Jackson, Minford and Wheelersburg from late October/early November all the way through until late February and this dedication pays off. When you are in a cage for at least 2 hours a week in the off-season taking 300-400 cuts and doing drills that fine tune your swing and being corrected on common errors by excellent instructors you produce very good fundamentals.

It appears to be that younger players seem to recognize (or maybe mom and dad recognize) at an early age what their "sport" is going to be, whether it is soccer or baseball or football or basketball and once they do there are avenues in all of those for travel, AAU, etc that provide for extended play throughout the season on select teams that are not coached by a parent and private lessons and the such that simply make good players much better.

There will be fewer and fewer 3-sport athletes and more and more 1 or 2 sport athletes that take advantage of the above and the High School program will be the beneficiary of this when a group of them are within a couple years of each other and go to same school. Like it or not that is the direction it is headed. Higher competition at an earlier age and more instruction.

[pfloyd]

... Logan drops to 3-14 ... losing to TVC's Federal Hocking this evening ...

Federal Hocking 10
Logan 0

... SEOAL league matchup tomorrow evening vs Portsmouth ... Logan stands at 0-7 in league play for the season with a makeup game vs Warren yet to be played, at Jackson next Wednesday ...

[Littlechiefs]

Need a win tonight. Still have tough games left with Warren and Jackson. 0 - 10 in league play would not be good. Anyone know how the JV squad is doing? Scores? Freshman class has some good athletes and a few of them played some games outside of rec. May be the boys to turn things around.

[moonshine]

Need a win tonight. Still have tough games left with Warren and Jackson. 0 - 10 in league play would not be good. Anyone know how the JV squad is doing? Scores? Freshman class has some good athletes and a few of them played some games outside of rec. May be the boys to turn things around.

We sure do need something!

[jottings]

What was tonight's final score against Portsmouth? Thanks.

[pfloyd]

... Logan lost 13-4 to Portsmouth to remain winless in SEOAL league action (0-8) ... season record falls to 3-15 ... Logan plays AT Vinton Co. Tuesday afternoon ...VC was the last win for the Chiefs (22-0 Logan "W") ... Vinton Co is 1-15 last in the TVC Ohio according to 93dog's TVC website , VC has scored 1 or fewer runs in 12 of their 15 losses , being shut out 6 times this season ... Tuesday should be Purple win number 4 and the second vs the Vikings on the season ...

[jottings]

Anybody heard a score from this evening's Gallipolis at Warren Local makeup game? Heard Chillicothe upset second place Jackson in a makeup game this evening, 6-2.

[moonshine]

Heard that Vinton Co Beat Logan last night. There was nothing in the local rag internet site! Sounds like things are falling apart! Lets go boy's get your heads screwed on right!

[Littlechiefs]

How is that even possible? Did they go in overconfident after beating them 22-0 last time? Sorry but no team with only 3 wins on the year should go into a game overconfident. Not ever. If 3 wins makes us feel like we are better than anybody then we are in serious trouble.

[moonshine]

How is that even possible? Did they go in overconfident after beating them 22-0 last time? Sorry but no team with only 3 wins on the year should go into a game overconfident. Not ever. If 3 wins makes us feel like we are better than anybody then we are in serious trouble.

I hope what I heard and saw was wrong! WOW again if the is true I agree we have serious trouble with all involved!

[Littlechiefs]

TVC website shows a 5-3 Vinton County win.

[Dundas]

Honestly I am more shocked that VC lost to Logan 22-0 than I am beating them 5-3.

[Rufus]

I assume what happened was that Vinton County threw a different pitcher this time around. VC has one very good pitcher that can keep them in a ballgame. I think after that, the pitching staff drops off quite a bit. I assume their ace was on the hill last night. Congrats to them on a great win.

[Dundas]

I assume what happened was that Vinton County threw a different pitcher this time around. VC has one very good pitcher that can keep them in a ballgame. I think after that, the pitching staff drops off quite a bit. I assume their ace was on the hill last night. Congrats to them on a great win.

VC did have their ace on the mound last night. But what the Vikings did well was limiting errors. VC has games where everything in play is trouble and then they have games where the defense is pretty good such as the case last night. Logan has some pretty talented players. Vinton County is very young and seem to be improving as the season goes. Good luck to the Chiefs in the remainder of the season.

[moonshine]

Jackson 10 Logan 0