The 1A-3A baseball teams in Talladega County spent most of the year gaining experience, but a few players stood out from the crowd. The Tigers of Talladega County Central were the only small-school team from the county to make the playoffs and five players lead the way on the All-County Team.
Jacorey Cross, Cameron Duncan, Dion Duncan, Nigel Jones and Preston Sillmon all played a big role in the Tigers’ success in 2008.
Dion Duncan led the way on the mound for the Tigers. The junior struck out 15 Wadley batters in late March to give TC Central its first area win of the season.
“He looked real good,” TC Central head coach Robert Duncan said after the game. “He had good control of his pitches. Overall I felt like he was in control of the game the whole way.”
The five players were part of a special year of athletics at TC Central as the football, basketball and baseball teams all went to the playoffs. The Tigers fell to Berry in the first round of the baseball playoffs to end their season.
The B.B. Comer Tigers missed the playoffs, but had several players step up and play well throughout the season. John Crowe, Devin Forbus, Michael Hale and Kameron Mizzell represent Comer on the All-County team.
Early in the season Tigers head coach Curtis Gray said the team was young, but also experienced.
“Age-wise we’re young,” Gray said during the county tournament at the beginning of the season. “We have probably two seniors, two juniors that will contribute a lot, but the majority of this team is the guys that when I first got here were eighth graders. They’ve been playing since the eighth grade. Age-wise they’re young, but baseball-wise they’ve played two years.”
Many of those players will return for the Tigers in 2009.
The Munford Lions came up just short of qualifying for the postseason in 2008, losing a tiebreaker to end their season.
As the regular season came to a close, Munford had to beat rival Lincoln and hope another team in the area lost in order to make the playoffs. The Lions did their job, defeating Lincoln, 19-7, but the part that was out of their hands didn’t go as Munford players and coaches would have liked.
“What we did today is null, but we beat Lincoln and it’s our seniors’ last home game,” Munford head coach Noel Stephens said after the game. “It wasn’t all a total loss. The kids had their backs against the wall and they came out and did what they were supposed to.”
Will Brashier and Hunter Gravette represent the Lions on the All-County Team. Gravette played shortstop for Munford, while Brashier played center field.
As for their rivals, the Golden Bears of Lincoln struggled in 2008. Mark Glenn’s squad did have two quality pitchers in Jake Badders and Anthony Butler. Both players made the All-County list. The Golden Bears will have a new leader in 2009 as Glenn resigned at the end of the school year.
The Fayetteville Wolves, who also struggled with a young team this year, were represented by Josh Roberson and Luke Sherbert.
Fayetteville head coach Marty Turner also resigned at the end of the school year and so the Wolves will be looking for a new coach as well.
