Post 11 preview: Sherrer says understanding team concept is important

By Rudy Coggins
Published in Sports on May 23, 2014 1:48 PM

• Print
• Email

rcoggins@newsargus.com

DUDLEY -- A versatile group of players that can bring different things to the table, third-year Wayne County Post 11 head baseball coach Jason Sherrer hopes to see his team enjoy a satisfying feast this summer.

They've walked away starved the past two years due to Mother Nature prematurely ending their season in the Area I East Division playoffs.

Sherrer has assembled a hungry -- and determined -- squad that opens its season at home against Apex Post 127 on Saturday evening. First pitch is 7 p.m. at the Doyle Whitfield Athletic Complex.

"We've got a collective Wayne County group (of players) from five schools, and they need to join together and play," Sherrer said. "As long as they can buy in and help each other out, it's going to be a fun summer. I think if we can play together as a team, it's going to help us get past from where we've been the past two years."

Eight players return off of last year's team which posted a 14-7 record. Ten new faces comprise the remainder of the 18-player team which seeks the program's first Area I East and Area I championships since 2011.

Back for a second season are Eastern Wayne's Ryan Faucette and Charles B. Aycock's Garrett Joyner, who combined for 56 of the team's 190 hits and 26 total RBI last summer. The duo is joined by fellow returnees Zack Smith (EW), Jackson Hayes (So. Wayne), Reed Howell (Rosewood), Kevin Williams (SW), Ben Rouse (CBA) and Methodist University freshman Greg Johnson.

It's a core group that Sherrer expects to show leadership on and off the field.

"So far, everything has been good," said Sherrer, who got his first look at the team during tryouts, a live batting practice session and two practices this week.

"They've got to be ready to roll every game, play to their ability and not to their opponent (level). If they get down a few runs early, they've got to learn not to give up."

The newcomers are Noah West (CBA), Jacob Hollingsworth (SW), Dallas Graham (SW), Chad Spurgeon (Spring Creek), Allen Coor (SC), Logan Miller (SC), Tim Naughton (CBA), Ryan Kelly (EW), Hank Smitherman (CBA) and Coy Barnett (EW).

The key to Post 11's success relies on game management involving three factors -- the battery (pitcher/catcher), defense and offense. The pitchers have to establish a strike zone, consistently pound it to be effective and avoid running up their count.

Sherrer likes strikeouts, but he'd rather see a defense work behind its pitcher instead of sitting back on its heels and getting lulled to sleep. At the plate, Post 11 batters must show some patience and work deep into the count against opposing hurlers.

The strategy sounds simple.

But executing it has been a different tale over the past two summers for Post 11. Wayne County committed 119 strikeouts during nearly 25 percent of its official at-bats last season, and left 165 runners on base.

"Last season we got into trouble quite a bit in a bunch of games where we were swinging at balls and getting ourselves out early in the count as opposed to waiting for a pitch that we could drive," said Sherrer, whose team scored 167 total runs.

"We've been talking about situations when to be aggressive and when to be a little more patient. So long as the kids buy into putting the ball on the ground, stay online, work station to station when we need to and give up their at-bat regardless of the situation, we should be able to score."

Wayne County entertains Duplin-Sampson on Sunday and plays host to perennial Area I West power Garner next Wednesday. Post 11 launches its Area I East Division campaign at Rocky Mount on May 29.