It’s time for another baseball season for veteran coach Charlie Smith and he’s excited about the prospects of his 2023 Winston Academy team.
The Patriots return some players with multiple years experience playing for Smith and for WA. JT McGinnis, Jett Joiner, Max Fulcher, Trey Williamson, and Hayze Gregory are a strong senior class nucleus to replace another veteran group like Brylee Wall, Aiden Fancher, Dalton Powell, and Jennings Fulton.
Unfortunately for Smith, a large part of his pitching production left and went to the college game with Fancher and Wall. It makes for some questions going into this year on the mound.
“We’re really a veteran ball club with the exception of pitching. We lost 130 innings pitching with our starters,” Smith said. “We’ve got several guys that pitched a little bit in high school and JV and we’re going to find out what they’re all about. We return some great seniors. Jett Johnson behind the plate is huge for us and Hayze Gregory has been a staple in our infield for several years.
“The cupboard is not bare. We just need to find some answers on the mound, and we have a chance to be really good.”
Gregory brings back a big bat and glove this year after hitting a team-best .440 with 37 hits, nine doubles, a home run and 19 RBI. Trey Williamson led the team with 11 doubles last year and had a .383 average.
Junior Bryson Wright is important on the mound and is the top returning pitcher. He’s the team’s ace coming into the year after going 38.1 innings last year with a 3.47 ERA. Only Gregory threw more than 10 innings last year and is returning.
It will be another challenging schedule for Smith’s team this year, too. WA started the year on Monday at Heritage and then played a home game against Canton Academy on Thursday. They will travel to Canton for a return game on Friday night at 6 p.m. Pillow Academy, Indianola, Newton County, and Tri-County are all on the schedule with the usual tough district matchups with Leake, Lamar, East Rankin, and Simpson.
“The conference is going to be really difficult. We play Heritage and Pillow in the other side of the North, and we play some really good public and private school teams,” Smith said. “If our kids step up and do what they’ve got potential to do, we’ll have a really nice ball club.”
