Two up, two down, wait for next year. Unfortunately, that was the result of two games played by the Putnam County 12-Under All-Stars this past weekend in the state Dixie Youth Baseball Championship tournament in Madison. Still, head coach Brian Wooten said he left the ball field feeling satisfied and even looking forward to doing it all over again next season.
“We had a good summer. We won some scrimmage games against some other counties before the tournament, so it was good, not a total loss. And our players, they all got better and I think they all enjoyed the experience,” Wooten said. “We also had a great group of parents and that’s always important. No problems, no drama, so that was good, too.” With only four 12-year-olds
With only four 12-year-olds on an 11-12 team this year, Wooten also pointed out most of his players will return next year, making him optimistic about an improved showing.
“You know, a lot of these kids play a lot of baseball, travel ball, so it’s the end of probably seven, eight months of playing for most of them, so they’re probably ready to do something else, but we all had a good time. It was fun,” Wooten said.
“And the (Putnam County) recreation department made it real easy on us. Scott (Haley) and Jay (Doss) do a great job there and we appreciate them. And I know the parents appreciate them. So it was a good experience for everyone and I think we’ll all do better next year.”
Putnam opened with a marathon three-hour effort Thursday night to play just the standard six innings against Perry-White, who ultimately prevailed with a 16-8 score.
“Unfortunately we walked 20, which I’ve never even been in a game where one team walked 20 guys before and I’ve been coaching a long time,” Wooten pointed out. “It was a combination of a small strike zone--which both teams had to deal with--but also on the first day you don’t want to use any of your pitching up with the pitching rules.”
The coach explained if a player throws more than 40 pitches in a day, he’s not allowed to pitch again the next day, so every team’s early strategy is not to let any pitcher exceed the limit. It also meant Putnam had to put a couple of pitchers in late who wouldn’t normally be pitching in a come-from-behind scenario.
“But that’s the way it goes sometimes,” he added.
Game two on Friday brought an even tougher Washington County team their way, but the 12-5 final tally doesn’t truly reflect his team’s effort, Wooten insisted.
“I think a lot of it was nerves that first night, but we played much better the second game and I was proud of that,” he said. “It was actually a really close game, zero, zero after two innings. We pitched a lot better and we only pitched two (players) that game, but in the end they just pitched better.
“We were still really proud of our whole team’s effort,” Wooten concluded. “And our other two coaches, Mark Cummings and Steven Scouten, they were instrumental in the team coming together. I’m really proud of them all.”