Champs' baseball hopes may rest on sophomores

Sophomore Ryan Rippy is a candidate to earn a spot as a district starter for Cascade, which lost both its top pitchers from 2009. (T-G File Photo by Danny Parker) [Click to enlarge] [Order this photo]

Coach Brandon Bassham's having a pair of aces up his sleeve last year helped his baseball team go further than any other team in Cascade's school history, finishing tied for third in the Class A state tournament.

Josh Brown and Kyle Mullins shared District 9-A pitcher of the year honors in 2009 in helping lead the team to a record of 36-3-1, a school best. However, they leave behind enormous shoes to fill.

"We replace 6-of-9 starters in the field but replacing those two and what they did on Monday and Tuesday (in district games) will be tough," said Bassham, who enters his second year at the Bell Buckle/Wartrace school.

Also moving on as graduates were Chase Nunley and Jacob Carkuff. The current team logs four seniors -- Jay Bishop, Tyler Bowen, Michael Buck and Kyle Saylor -- that hope to fill the leadership void.

A key to helping this team go will be a strong sophomore class of 11 players, which includes returning starters Jared Carkuff, Gavin Elmore and Ryan Rippy.

"I told them yesterday that even though they're considered underclassmen, really to me they're not," Bassham said.

The Champs look to open their season by defeating the team that ended their season the prior year as they welcome defending Class A state champion Summertown to their diamond on Monday afternoon at 5.

"It'll be tough but the worst that can happen is we get a measuring stick that tells us where we're at and what we need to work on," Bassham said. "It's a neat matchup. You look at it on paper and you've got two of the top four teams that were in the state tournament last year playing on opening day. Hopefully we get a good crowd out."

Tough soccer schedule

The Champion soccer team won't waste any time playing cupcakes. They open up with a bevy of road matches versus larger schools, including showdowns with Giles County, DeKalb County, Lincoln County and the Franklin County Tournament.

"We're jumping in with both feet this next week," third-year coach Monica Lewis said.

Cascade defeated Richland in the preseason opener before going 0-3-1 in the Red Raider Jam versus Coffee County, Shelbyville Central, Webb and White County.

Seniors Eli Basurto, Sylvestre Basurto, Michael Martin, Chris Miller, Carlos Palmaros and Cody Wright look to guide the Orange and Black to a winning record after going 3-8-2 and losing to Marshall County in the District 11-A/AA tournament opener in 2009.

There's still work to be done before they get started on Tuesday in Pulaski.

"We need to improve a little bit on positioning. Passing has improved tremendously from last year. Just finishing the plays mainly because we start some good things and start moving the ball down the field, then we lose it," Lewis said.

Replacing goalkeeper Bryan Hayes won't be a simple task. Freshman Cody Smith appears to have the starting job locked up. He'll have help on the defensive side of the patch in the Basurto boys and sweeper Ryan Purdom.

Singles hitters aplenty

Replacing six big bats and coping with inexperience are the main concerns for softball coach Ralph Edwards.

Lauren Claxton, Tiffany Gibbs, Torey Hornberger and Mary Jett all graduated from the 2009 team that finished runner-up in the district for the fifth straight season.

"We're going to be very inexperienced," said Edwards, whose team was 16-9-1 last season. "We're looking at probably having some freshmen play, and we're going to have to count on them."

One bright spot is the team's senior battery of fifth-year pitcher Leigha Carter and catcher Sara Elizabeth Edwards.

"Leigha's going to be our workhorse," Edwards said. "We're going to count on her day-in and day-out. Now, we've got Kelsey Parker that is starting to throw the ball some. We'll use (Parker) in maybe certain situations, but Leigha's going to be the workhorse."

The Lady Champions will have to take chances on the bases with the starting lineup being loaded with singles hitters. However, the overall team speed of the roster is the best it's been in some time.

"A couple of our freshmen are pretty good slap hitters. We're going to use them to their strengths. We're going to run the bases, play small ball and bunt the ball," Edwards said.

"We're trying to get everybody successful at laying the ball down so we can move runners over. We may win games 1-0 or 2-0. We don't have the power hitters we had in the past."

The Lady Champs get started in District 9-A action quickly by hosting Community on Monday night at 6.