Clarke Central High School third baseman AJ Huff bats in a game against Cedar Shoals High School on March 2. CCHS head varsity baseball coach Nicholas Wegmann planned the season schedule so that his players would not feel more pressured in Region 8-5A games, which began on March 15. “We try to tell our players (region games are) really just another game. That’s why I tried to try to schedule so many games back-to-back to where, at some point, it would take the pressure off of you going out and playing every single day,” Wegmann said. “All of our kids so far have had in-game experience, in one way or another, whether it be a really tight situation, we’re winning by a lot or maybe we’re getting beat by a few runs.” Photo by Gretchen Hinger
After starting off the 2021 season with a 7-2 record that has now moved to 12-15 as of April 20, the Clarke Central High School varsity baseball team has moved into their second phase of the season, Region 8-5A play.
After the start of Region 8-5A games on March 15, the team was dealt a five-game region losing streak that was broken on March 26 against Jackson County High School, and as of April 20, CCHS now has a 5-8 Region record.
Clarke Central High School varsity baseball pitcher Jarrod Boon, a junior, prepares to throw a pitch against Cedar Shoals High School on March 2. CCHS head varsity baseball coach Nicholas Wegmann believes that as long as the team plays to the best of their ability, they can make the playoffs. “I’m still expecting them to be competitive and every single game that we play our all end goal at the beginning of the season was to make the playoffs, even though we are in a very tough region this year,” Wegmann said. “We have a lot of experience, we have a lot of talent on our team this year. So our all end goal is still absolutely to try to make the playoffs and I’ve been telling our kids every day. As long as we play up to the level that we know we can play.” Photo by Gretchen Hinger
According to head varsity baseball coach Nicholas Wegmann, this year’s new region is one of the most difficult in the state with his team facing Eastside High School (18-7), Walnut Grove High School (16-8), JCHS (15-10), Apalachee High School (10-14), Loganville High School (20-5), and Greenbrier High School (21-5).
“This year is, in my opinion, is probably the toughest region in the state of Georgia in 5A. We have (LHS) who’s the defending three-time champion, (who) probably had a good shot at winning last year if we didn’t get shut down (due to COVID-19). (The new region has) also brought in (GHS), who is a historically great program out of Augusta,” Wegmann said. “Then you bring in (EHS) and (AHS) and (JCHS) who are normally very fundamentally sound programs that are good at baseball.”
An infographic shows the wins and losses between Clarke Central High School and other Region 8-5A teams. The star denotes that CCHS still has one more game against Greenbrier High School on April 21. Graphic by Gretchen Hinger
The team is left with one game on April 21 to end off the season against GHS, the third-ranked team in the overall 5A class according to MaxPreps, after a win against GHS on April 19. Wegmann believes that the team needs to get back to the consistency and aggressive approach the team used at the beginning of the season.
“Our first nine games, we (had) seven (wins) and two (loses) and we were kind of playing ourselves into a lot of close games and we were winning a lot of them. Those two losses we had at the beginning of the season (were where) we had two games where we really came up and gave out some awesome big innings during the game,” Wegmann said. “I still like where we are right now, we just really need to get better at showing that consistency that we had at the beginning of the season.”
Third basemen AJ Huff, a junior, believes that the key to winning more region games is the team’s focus.
“I think we started off really strong (this season), then we went on an epic-long losing streak, but that just (happens). Sometimes we’ll be up in the game and then just lose focus. But, I feel like we’re a better team than most of the teams we actually do face,” Huff said. “Actually being in the region (games) now, we do realize that we need to focus a little bit more.”
“As long as we play up to our ability we have a chance to win every game that’s on the rest of our schedule.”
— Nicholas Wegmann,
CCHS head varsity baseball coach
Despite difficulties faced during the season, including injuries to starting second baseman Hayes Perno, starting pitcher Quin McManmon, starting right fielder J. Apolonio Dennis and Huff, all juniors, Wegmann feels that if the team competes to the best of their abilities for the remainder of the season, they can succeed.
“I feel like it’s a great challenge for all of our guys and I really wouldn’t want it any other way,” Wegmann said. “As long as we play up to our ability we have a chance to win every game that’s on the rest of our schedule. You can tell that a lot of (our players) do believe that, so once we catch fire again, we (can) get a little bit of momentum, we get that energy that we had at the beginning of the season (and) we can go on a really good run.”
Expect future coverage of the upcoming game between Greenbrier High School and Clarke Central High School.
