The defending conference champions from last season, Glenn Bobcats, look to continue that success this year. Coming off an 11-1 Piedmont Triad 4A record last season, Coach John Fowler feels that his squad has the potential to be a very good baseball team.

“If you are 11-1 in the conference one year, go to the second round of the state playoffs, and only lose one starter, center fielder Ryan Parker, which we did, and return all of your pitching, I expect us to be very good,” said Fowler. “If everyone stays healthy and contributes like they should, I expect us to be as good , or better, than we were last year,” Fowler added.

Not only is the Bobcat pitching staff returning from last year, but Fowler says that quite a few of his seniors have played together on varsity since they were sophomores and that experience will pay off this year.

Fowler says that replacing Parker in center field will be difficult, and with the injury to Western Carolina signee, catcher Jason Smith, he will have to shuffle his line up this season. Replacing Smith behind the plate will be Tyler Surface, who played third base last year. Kegan Mahaffey will move in from the outfield to take over at third. The net result is two outfield positions up for grabs and Fowler says that he is looking for a couple of guys to step up and perform. The coach has been pleased with what he has seen in practice and scrimmages thus far this spring, “In this first week and a half some guys have looked good being shuffled around.”

Fowler is really confident in his pitching staff. “Pretty deep,” said Fowler when asked about his pitching corp. “I don’t know that we have a number one starter, Noah Pearl is back as a senior with three years of varsity experience, Alec Hodges, last year’s conference pitcher of the year is back as a junior, Ryan Woods who is a junior left hander will be back, and sophomore Mason Striplin, who is probably our hardest thrower, is back.” Fowler says that he has the luxury of being able to choose any one of these four hurlers and feel good about his chances. He also mentioned that he has two kids on the JV squad that will see some action on the mound in this week’s varsity scrimmage. “These kids are 6’2″, 6’3″ and throw in the 80′s, so if I had to put them out there next week in a game I would feel very confident,” said Fowler, “So our pitching situation here is good right now.”

“We’re not going to scare anybody getting off the bus,” said Fowler. “We don’t have any 90mph throwers and we won’t beat you with the long ball, but put us all together and I believe we are a pretty formidable foe,” added coach Fowler. The Bobcats will rely on their speed to help manufacture runs. Fowlers says he sees his offense producing five or six singles a game, three or four doubles, and maybe a home run here and there. He thinks his defense will be solid, and of course he is counting on the “tons of experience” from his pitchers.

Winning baseball games is important to Coach Fowler and his staff, but even more important is helping these kids grow to be great young men. “We have a tradition here at Glenn where each year we attach a Bible verse to our season, and this year we chose Proverbs 27:17, that verse says ‘As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another’.”  Fowler said,  ”If we help make each other better every day, if we trust each other, and if we play hard every day, we are going to be sharp enough to cut through some teams that, on paper, are probably better than us.”

“I think we have a chance to be a very good team, not intimidating, but just very good, just a good consistent team,” said coach Fowler.

It should be a fun year on the diamond as the Bobcats go for yet another conference championship.

GO BOBCATS!!!