Coaches praise Wood Bat concept
Posted on Thursday, July 17, 2008
BENTON COUNTY - The first season of the Northwest Arkansas Wood Bat League wrapped up last week with praise from local coaches.
Bentonville, Rogers and Roger Heritage had teams in the league, which had about 10 teams each in varsity and junior varsity schedules.
"It's been great," Tigers coach Todd Abbott said. "We've enjoyed it. The kids have enjoyed it. It's been a good experience."
Experience being the key word.
The teams are made up of next year's high school teams, allowing coaches to spend about six weeks in game situations with their up-andcoming players.
"You get a lot of these younger guys that haven't spent a whole lot of time in game situations and they're really getting to hear what we (coaches ) want, see what we want and understand that. I think it's really going to be beneficial."
The Tigers played 20-something games and Abbott was more concerned with development than wins and losses.
"(Younger players are ) playing together and that's good," he said. "Every guy that's playing on each of these teams is eligible to play for his high school next year."
Abbott was pleased with the pitching of Nick Stefanic and Scotty Joyner during the summer games and said Dan Beam, Logan Pearson and Matt Russell all hit the ball well.
Playing with wood bats was an adjustment for all of the teams, Abbott said.
"The wood bat's sweet spot is much smaller," he said. "If you get jammed it's a pop-up or grounder into shallow infield. That same ball could be single into left-center field (with an aluminum bat ). It's not harder to hit but you have to be a better hitter.
"It has been (good competition ). For the most part games are low scoring. That wood bat is kind of an equalizer."
• • • Matt Melson, entering his first year as the Mounties' head coach after four years as a volunteer and eight years as assistant coach, said the summer league gave him a jumpstart on the fall. "I hope we continue to do this every summer," he said. "It's great for our high school program. "The Mounties were able to work on signs, evaluate players, learn their roles and grow as a team. "It's been a lot of baseball but it's been good for us," Melson said. "Most of our kids came out of JV baseball and hadn't had many at-bats or many innings played. This was just a good opportunity to get them a lot of experience and develop some chemistry. It's been an invaluable experience. "Tanner Kaza emerged as the team's ace during the summer while Jason Carmichael and Alex Flowers were "pleasant surprises offensively. "Rising seniors provided the team with solid leadership, Melson said. The low-scoring games forced the Mounties to work on creating scoring opportunities. "It forced us to play small ball and manufacture runs," Melson said. "It's been good. We've faced a lot of the same competition we'll be facing this spring. It gives you confidence -it let's you know you can play with anybody."
• • • Rogers Heritage head coach Keith Kilgore had just four practices with his new team before the start of the Wood Bat League. The 31 games combined by the War Eagles' two teams gave plenty of time to learn about each other. "This summer was not about wins and losses," Kilgore said. "From a selfish standpoint this league could not have come at a better time because what we had the opportunity to do was to get to know one another and we used this summer as an evaluation tool of some future players. "Heritage's older group of players went 11-3-3 while the younger players - not necessarily a junior varsity team yet - went 10-3-1. "We got some kids some playing time and experience," Kilgore said. "We can use the fall for a lot of teaching and working on our skills. If we didn't have that opportunity this summer to get some game experience then we wouldn't have had an opportunity for that until the spring - when it counts. "The War Eagles have two players with varsity experience - Spanky Purdy and Zach Stewart - after the pair played some with the Mounties last spring. Kilgore said his new team competed well and made strides as a team. "Our focus was mainly on a team concept and playing well as a team," he said. "This summer was a huge success. It told me a lot about some individuals and answered some questions that I had initially. I'm looking forward to the fall to have an opportunity to work and preparing for the spring."
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