Baseball

[TigerDad5]

Who are some good baseball teams in the area besides Macon and LaPlata? Who are some other great players besides Taylor Wheeler and Austin Clapp? Can anyone challenge Macon for the CCC title this year?

[Tony Teague]

Wow Mark Twain must be good at everything they had article in the Hannibal paper!

[sportcat]

Highland was pretty tough last year. Should be again depending on who goes out. Centralia baseball and softball players have a consistent place to play in the off season. Columbia-Jefferson City area has a lot of good competition. Schuyler County, North Shelby and Milan have the most returning all conference players in the Tri-Rivers. Want to see a really good pitcher? Check out Westran HS righty Tyler Hunt. Hornets have a good thing going. The Westran Classic baseball tournament is scheduled for Saturday, April 3.

Knox and Putnam County lost a lot to graduation. if the Eagles can field the ball, they can be competitive.

[TigerDad5]

Hunt is a pretty good hitter also, can't wait for him and Clapp to face each other (both just juniors). I am assuming Westran is on Macon's schedule, they were last year.
The CCC is still a track conference at most schools. I think even at Centralia, the better athletes, even though they may have played baseball in Columbia as kids, still go out for track in general in high school. And, lets face it, in today's video game, instant message, twitter, text asap, microwave society, baseball is pretty slow and boring for many. AND, there are a lot more girls to talk to at a track meet.

[cardsfan]

Bradley Craigmyle from North Shelby is a pretty good pitcher/overall baseball player.

South Shelby baseball team will be very young. A few of their upperclassmen didn't come out this year--a couple of players from last year playing golf this year and maybe another player or 2 just didn't go out this year. I think I read 13 freshmen on the SS baseball team out of 26 players or something like that.

[ptownpa]

I know it is early and who knows, but Palmyra beat an Elsberry team by 11 last night. I do not know anything about Elsberry but thought typically they were a baseball town.


Who is where this weekend for the CCC tournament? I know Palmyra is at Centralia but not sure who else is there and where the other half are.

[TigerDad5]

Centralia has an awesome school sponsored and run website that actually has game film and is updated regularly, the brackets are on that site. I think I goggled 2010 CCC baseball schedule and that is all I came up with. The other half are in Macon I believe and I don't know who they are. The way I understand it, the winner of these tournaments wins the right to host the tournament the following year. I do not have a spring sports schedule yet, so I am lost. One would think the CCC would run a web-site. Hint Hint Nudge Nudge Wink Wink, or that the schedules would be posted somewhere online. I have next years CCC football schedule for each team all in one nice Excel package (allowing me to compare strength of schedule easily in a side by side format) , but I had to ask a connection to get it. One would think all these schedules would be easily accessible by the public as soon as they came out.

[ptownpa]

Thanks, I found that web site, David Meyers does a great job of taking care of the Centralia Panthers web site. He is also the Conference sec. at least he used to be. The CCC should pay him to build a website for the conference. I am sure David has nothing else to do. I agree it would be great to have a place to go to get all the questions answered for the conference.

[TigerDad5]

I am sure Dave could find someone who does have time to do it. It would be cool to have everything at one place, all schedules, records, news, and what not. One would think CCC schools could partner up and do it as a class, not just for sports but everything CCC. Building web-sites is actually a practical thing to know.

[ptownpa]

At Centralia yesterday, Palmyra beat Centralis, South Shelby beat Louisiana, Centralia beat Louisiana and Palmyra beat South Shelby to win the bottom half of the CCC tournament.

[TigerDad5]

Macon defeated Mark Twain 2-0, Clapp pitched a perfect game, to advance. Highland defeated Monroe City. I do not know what happened in the Mark Twain vs MC game (guessing MT won). Macon defeated Highland 13-0 in 5 innings, 8-0 after the first, to win the upper half of the bracket. Macon used a potpourri of pitching in this game, sending four different hurlers to the mound, still leaving a couple of arms in the cupboard. It was the coldest I have been at a baseball game since game 4 of the 1977 American League playoffs in Kansas City.
Macon is extremely young this year, starting one senior, three or four juniors, 3 or four sophomores (it varies), and TWO freshmen. This in fact is probably the youngest Macon has ever been on the varsity level.
I find it interesting how different this years reality is from what the self proclaimed baseball know it alls of Macon summer league baseball forecasted when this group of kids were young. You just never know what kids are going to grow, show up, develop, work hard, move, or get hurt. WHICH is WHY a youth program should do what it can to promote development of ALL kids in a program and not just a select few. It is silly and stupid to tell 90% of your league at the end of June, "thanks for playing, thanks for your money, but we aren't going to allow you to play anymore this year, only the "special" kids get to play in July." Baseball is a great game but the politics of it ruin it for many kids who could've ended up as decent high school players. And we wonder why kids find other activities to participate in, activities in which they have a better chance of controlling their own destinies. The order of things should always be Talent, Hard Work (gotta have a little bit of something for the hard work to pay off, which is why talent is first), and then the politics should take care of themselves. POLITICS should never ever ever come before hard work or talent. Boy, I am sure glad TIDE still comes in a box!

[TigerDad5]

Macon 3 Chilicothe 1, WP Tanner Nute 5 2/3, Save Austin Clapp 1 1/3, both juniors. Don't really have any other details at this time. Macon travels to Putnam County for a Tuesday night game.

[ptownpa]

Palmyra beat Liberty last night 4 -1, Austin Hinkle pitched complete game. Palmyra plays QND tonight, I am guessing that will be a tough one.

[TigerDad5]

Macon 11 Putnam Co. 4, Sophomore Kody Johnson pitched 4 scoreless for the win. Macon's varsity improves to 4-0 and the J.V to 2-0 with wins over Chilicothe and P.C. It appears the pitching duels between Hinkle, Jameson, and Clapp are going to be the ones to watch in the CCC this year.

[ptownpa]

Hinkle pitched a good game against Liberty and I know Jameson and Clapp are pretty salty, I am looking forward to some of those games this year myself. Palmyra lost to QND last night 10 -2, Colton Goode pitched and did a nice job. QND hit the ball hard and to places Palmyra did not have players. Palmyra made good contact all night and had some things going at different times just could not string them together. Hinkle was Hinkle hit the ball well and scored and for the life of me I can not remember how the other run was scored. I want to say Chad Englehart <sp> drove it in. Palmyra is at West Pike on Thursday. Then Macon and Mark Twain next week.

[TigerDad5]

I was looking at Macon's baseball schedule and noticed Macon plays both Palmyra and Westran next week which is kind of a bummer because Clapp will not be able to pitch both of those games. I am guessing we will see a Clapp vs Hinkle match up on the 6th, which should be a good one. A much anticipated Clapp vs Hunt match up on the 8th may not happen. Probably depends on how much Clapp has to throw against Palmyra. I am assuming of course that the CCC match up will take priority over the non-con game. If Macon finds a way to go 2-0 next week with their young team, it would be a very good week indeed. It is also kind of a bummer that Palmyra plays both Macon and Mark Twain during the same week. So Hinkle vs Jameson may not happen either. AND, to be fair and balanced, if Palmyra finds a way to go 2-0 next week they will be in the drivers seat for the conference title. Hopefully the weather will cooperate for what should be a great week of baseball.

[ptownpa]

Looking at the Palmyra Schedule we will play Macon on the 29th of April and I am thinking that will be the one that counts for the conference. So Macon probably won't pitch Clapp in the first game. Palmyra will most likely hold Hinkle out to pitch against Mark Twain as this should be the conference game. Palmyra will either pitch Colton Goode or Levi Miles against Macon and then Hinkle against Mark Twain. Now I am just thinking out loud and am only guessing on which games will count in the conference. No matter what I just hope Palmyra can play good in both games and then let them end however they do. It will be a fun week, and I don't care how young Macon is you know they are good and they will be the team to beat, if you want any part of a title.

[TigerDad5]

Not arguing, just passing on what I know. My schedule says this week is the game that counts with Palmyra, but it could be a miss print or an automatic assumption by our local printer.

[ptownpa]

That very well could be also, I am just going off of past knowledge and no confirmation at all, Palmyra is supposed to play Mark Twain tonight in a make up game, that will make it all even a little more interesting, if they get it in.

[ptownpa]

Macon won the game against Palmyra, 10 - 0 in 5. Macon is pretty darn good and Clapp is a heck of a pitcher, Palmyra pitched Hinkle. I did not get to go to the game but the pretty much went as I thought it would. I was hopeful but figured Macon would put it on us. Mark Twain on Thursday hopefully we can get that one.