GREEN COVE SPRINGS – At any level, baseball coaches usually point to pitching and defense as keys to a successful season or a deep playoff run. And with three players batting above .300 and a fourth with an on-base percentage pushing the .350 mark, Clay High School coach Rob Thompson couldn’t agree more.
“Our defense and pitching are the major keys to our early success,” said Thompson, whose team is off to a 7-2 start. “Our errors are down and our team earned run average is .215.
“Any time you can field and pitch, you put yourself in a good position to win,” he said.
Thompson is quick to note that senior pitcher Dillon Tomlinson and juniors Derek Sosa and Kyle Byrd are his studs on the mound.
“I feel very confident with any of those guys,” Thompson said.
He said each pitcher has his strong points, and that together they’ve done a great job controlling other teams’ offenses -- to the tune of a .191 batting average.
“That’s why we’re winning,” Thompson said.
That, and the fact his defense doesn’t make many mistakes when the ball is in play.
Thompson has seen his aces toss shutouts over Keystone (3-0), Ridgeview (7-0) and more recently, a 3-0 blanking of District 4-4A rival St. Augustine.
Each shutout was a combined effort,” Thompson added.
Tomlinson, who pitched six innings before giving way to Sosa against St. Augustine, has a 2-1 record with a save; but more impressively, he has 24 strikeouts in 21 innings to go with a miniscule 0.86 ERA.
“We generally try to pitch Dillon in our district games, and he’s been up to the task,” Thompson said.
Sosa, a left-hander, has a 2-1 record with a save, and Byrd is still unbeaten at 2-0.
“Derek doesn’t allow many base runners,” Thompson said, evidenced by his 1.59 ERA. “And Kyle has pitched against some of the better hitting teams.”
Apart from pitching and fielding, the veteran coach pointed to one concern in particular.
“We’re only batting .240 as a team and that number has to come up,” he said as the Blue Devils near a heavier district schedule.
Sophomore catcher Dakota Higdon, second baseman Drew Weeks, third baseman J.J. Crisp and shortstop Jake Desuyo are hitting in the first four spots, and the quartet has given Thompson reason to be hopeful as the season unfolds.
Higdon’s .444 average leads the team in batting, while Weeks and Crisp are hitting .357 and .333, respectively. The latter two have a pair of home runs as well.
“I feel like we’re stacked at the top of the order,” Thompson said. “That group continues to put the ball in play and creates things. Now we just need to get all of our bats going.”
With the likes of Creekside joining perennial powers Nease and Palatka in an already highly competitive district, Thompson believes the district title is up for grabs.
“It’s a tough nine-team district and it will be a tossup down to the wire,” he said. “We have to win the games that we should.”