Bearcat baseball team celebrates most successful season in program history at banquet
Published 4:32 pm Friday, May 27, 2016
Joe Crine — Post-Searchlight
Honorees: Bainbridge High School Bearcats varsity and junior varsity baseball award winners display their honors. From left to right in the front are Ty Varnum, Carson Inlow, Noah Bryant, Keith Lyle, Caleb Boutwell and Will Kelley. From left to right in the back are Cayden McQuaig, Walt Burrell, Ben Mitchell, Nick Barber and Dalton Harrell.
Coach Brian McCorkle’s record setting Bainbridge High School Bearcat baseball team celebrated the top season in team history Friday at the Decatur County School System’s annual baseball banquet.
Head coach Christopher Bryant’s junior varsity Bearcats and head coach Dan Klages’s seventh and eighth grade Bearcats were also honored.
The varsity Bearcats finished 21-9 and swept the Spalding High School Jaguars 3-2 and 6-5 in a first round State Class AAAA playoff series on the road. They were eliminated in the second round by the Buford High School Wolves. They advanced further than any other team in Bearcats baseball history.
In their first round double-header sweep over Spalding, the Bearcats were led by Will Kelley who blasted a home run in the first inning, banged out a single in the fifth inning and smacked a double in the seventh inning. He scored the winning run on an RBI single by Noah Bryant. Winning pitcher Ty Varnum, who won the varsity pitcher of the year award, struck out five and walked just one.
The eleventh and twelfth grade academic award went to Keith Lyle and the ninth and tenth grade academic award went to Ben Mitchell. Lyle also won the John Hambrick Batting Average Award named for a former outstanding Bearcats player who lost his life in a drowning accident.
The Bearcats varsity defensive player of the year was Noah Bryant. The varsity most improved player of the year was Caleb Boutwell, the varsity coaches award winner was Will Kelley and the Bearcats captains award winner, as chosen by the players, was Keith Lyle.
Earning first team All-Region 1-AAAA honors were infielder Keith Lyle, outfielder Caleb Boutwell and pitcher Ty Varnum. Earning second team All-Region 1-AAAA were infielder Will Kelley, outfielder Carson Inlow and catcher Noah Bryant.
Junior varsity offensive player of the year was Dalton Harrell, junior varsity pitcher of the year was Nick Barber and junior varsity defensive player of the year was Walt Burrell.
The eighth grade academic award winner was Austin Aldridge and eighth grade player of the year was Sam Boutwell. The seventh grade academic award winner was Jack Burke and seventh grade player of the year was Joe Waddell.
