Putnam County Middle School recently named Chase Lundy its new head baseball coach.
Lundy, who teaches at the middle school, has been an assistant coach there for the last three years and is now the head coach. He was previously an assistant at Putnam County High School.
Lundy is also an assistant football coach at Putnam County High School on the defensive side of the ball.
Lundy coached at the high school but stepped down because he wanted to make an impact on the county’s younger players. He had already taught most of the players but also wanted to coach them.
“So, I stepped down from the varsity three years ago, so 2022 was my first year at the middle school,” Lundy said. “I was working with the varsity before then, and I just came to the middle school because I noticed a talent gap. [The players] should know what to do before getting to high school, and I could help at the middle school by developing those talents, and the knowledge was gained.”
Lundy is ready for the Putnam County Middle School baseball team’s season, which begins on Feb. 10. The new coach has high expectations for the team this season and is happy he took over.
“We're going to strive for perfection,” Lundy told The Eatonton Messenger. “We know that being perfect isn't a reality, but at the same time, that would be the expectation.”
Lundy said the team’s strengths would be its bats and arms. Due to its solid lineup behind the plate and on the mound, he expects the offense and pitching to be slightly ahead of the defense to start the year.
Lundy believes the team's defense in the field will vastly improve throughout the year.
“We're going to have some good bats behind the plate, and we're going to have some good arms throwing,” Lundy said. “We need to develop more fundamentals, what to do with the ball when the ball gets to us in different situations. So, situational baseball is what we need to work on.”
Lundy has a strong bond with the middle school team's players, especially the older ones. He’s coached the eighth graders for the past two seasons and has seen them grow both on and off the field.
Lundy said that the future of the high school team will be bright due to the talent of middle school players.
“I think we have a strong group of eighth graders that have been with us since sixth grade, and they've really set the tone for how this middle school program should be run and how the varsity could be set up for the next couple of years,” Lundy explained. “The future at the high school is bright.”
Putnam County’s middle school baseball team scrimmages on Feb. 5 before the season opener on Feb. 10.