Pitching is important in high school baseball, especially at the Class A Division I level, and Putnam County head coach Stephen Phillips recognizes his team has struggled on the mound to start this season.
The War Eagles’ pitchers are young and inexperienced but remain working hard to improve their craft.
“We’ve got to get better,” Phillips said. “The lack of experience at the varsity level on the mound has really been our Achilles heel. [We’ve struggled with] throwing strikes and working out of jams, but that stuff will come.”
The first-year Putnam County head coach has worked with his pitchers to consistently find the strike zone. He knows that if they can do that, they can be dangerous heading into region play.
Phillips said his pitchers have faced some challenging non-region competition in their first five games.
“One of the reasons that I scheduled a tough non-region schedule is for the kids to really be battle-tested by the time we start region, but I’ve seen some positives along the way,” he said. “We’ve just got to lock in and do a better job of making teams put it in play and letting our defense work.”
Putnam opened its season Feb. 11 against Ola and dropped a 24-2 decision. The War Eagles’ pitching staff struggled to consistently find the plate in the loss to the Mustangs from Class 4A.
Putnam did put together back-to-back wins Feb. 14 in a sweep of Eagle’s Landing, another Class 4A team. The War Eagles limited their opponent to just six runs in that two-game series.
In game one, Wyatt Sims and Wade Johnston combined for six strikeouts and only four walks in a run-rule win. Jamarion Robertson struck out five and walked one in another run-rule win in game two.
Against Eagle’s Landing, Phillips was impressed with how his pitchers consistently found the strike zone.
“We did a better job of throwing strikes. We worked ahead in the count,” Phillips said afterward.
However, Putnam’s woes on the mound returned in a two-game series against Athens Academy last week. The Spartans took advantage of walks, helping them score 36 total runs against the War Eagles.
In game one against Athens Academy, three Putnam pitchers combined for 12 walks. The Spartans had only 10 hits but scored 15 runs. In game two, they scored 21 runs, partly due to free bases.
As a long-time coach, Phillips knows that giving up walks can be frustrating for a pitcher. In three losses, his team averaged 10 walks per game, but he believes his young arms can improve with time.
“Trying to be perfect with runners on is also compounding the problem. We just need to make the other team earn what they get by making them put [the ball in play],” Phillips said. “All but one of my pitchers have limited experience on the mound. It’s been trial by fire for most of them.”