And now we tune in for a bit of baseball ....

CITIZEN-TIMES.com
Falcons ready to soar to greater heights

By Andrew Pearson
March 2, 2008 12:15 am

A countless number of plastic baseballs shot around the floor and walls of West Henderson’s gym Wednesday.

Intermittently, one would ricochet softly off the Falcons’ captains — outfielder/pitcher Casey Allison, infielder/pitcher Daniel Hyatt and infielder/pitcher Josh Moore — as the trio took a break from practice.

All this activity in such a contained space was forced upon a six-time defending conference championship team by late February snow, but the weather is not chilling annual expectations.

“I think we should be able to contend for a conference title,” Moore said matter of fact. “It’s become a tradition to do it here.”

Moore couldn’t be more correct.

The Falcons have not finished worse than first in either the Western Athletic or Western Highlands conferences since dropping from 3-A to 2-A in 2002. During that time, their average number of wins (23.6) and losses (three) falls in line with last season’s 23-3 record.

“The kids know they’re a marked team, and they really take a lot of pride in that,” West Henderson coach Jim Hyatt said. “Sometimes you have little letdowns or don’t show up on a certain day, and that’s why you don’t see baseball teams go undefeated much. But if our kids aren’t winning, they get concerned.”

‘They have the ability to create some havoc’

Between the regular season and then summer and fall competition, many of West Henderson’s players willingly participate in about 100 games a year.

“Our kids love baseball. For many of them, this is the only sport they know,” Jim Hyatt said. “It’s a darn enjoyable group to work with. They show up every day ready to get better. They never whine.”

For all of the Falcons’ success on a local scale, a state championship has eluded them since 1992. However, no WNC school has won a NCHSAA baseball title since 2002 (Roberson, 3-A) and the area’s current chances appear cloudy at best.

Allison, who belted out a school record and WNC-best 15 home runs last spring, is the only returning first-team selection from the 2007 Citizen-Times All-WNC team. And nobody is getting the level of national attention paid to recent Major League Baseball draft picks — Sam Runion (Reynolds, 2007), Justin Jackson (Roberson, 2007) and Cameron Maybin (Roberson, 2005).

But the Falcons do feature a WNC-high three seniors committed to colleges – Allison (Wingate), Moore (Navy) and John Smith (Newberry). Daniel Hyatt, who is a junior, could be a potential Division I recruit for 2009.

“If we get beat by a good pitcher, that’s one thing,” Allison said.

“But we can’t afford to look past anybody. We definitely don’t want to be the group that lets down what is expected of West baseball. I think a lot of people out there might doubt the ability of this year’s team. It’s up to us it go out there and keep it going.”

Can they?

The Falcons return only four full-time starters, and of their 36 junior varsity and varsity players — 24 will either be freshmen or sophomores.

Jim Hyatt, who has been at West Henderson since 1991, concedes that his pitching rotation won’t overpower opponents. But if a West Henderson batter gets on base — Moore (who hit .398 in 2007), Daniel Hyatt (.425) and Allison (.506) will likely be the first three names on every lineup card — catchers had better keep a hair trigger on their throwing arm.

“This is probably the fastest team we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Hyatt said. “They have the ability to really create some havoc. I think we’re going to be able to score some runs. We’re going to have to.”