Experience, pitching lead Yellow Jackets into Class 6-A

Published 9:21 am Saturday, January 7, 2023

THOMASVILLE – Thomas County Central baseball finished 26-9, undefeated in Region 1-4A and advanced to the quarterfinal round of the state playoffs last season.

With the experience and talent returning on the mound this year, the Yellow Jackets are poised to duplicate last year’s success, even if it is in Class 6-A.

“We have a lot coming back from last year, which makes you feel more comfortable jumping up two classifications. We lost Adam Lane, Jason Benton and Bryson Rawls. They were three seniors who contributed every day for us last year. After that, we’ve got everybody back,” Central coach Ryan Strickland said. 

Griffin Taylor returns as last year’s Region 1-4A pitcher of the year, posting a 7-1 record and 1.35 ERA in 44.2 innings pitched. Reid Harvey also returns after sporting a 2.10 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 36.2 innings. The duo leads a pitching staff that allowed just 113 runs last season, including two or fewer runs in 19 games. Strickland is confident in his entire pitching staff.

“When you look at playing a three-game series in a playoff, you can never have enough arms,” Strickland said. “We know what we’ve got coming back from last year arm-wise. We only lost one pitcher, so we’ve got a lot of arms back. 

“They’ve been looking good in the offseason. We’ll have three or four weeks of non-region games where we can figure out people’s roles, who we can use where and have that pitching staff versus one or two guys.”

Depth is not just reserved for the pitching staff. The Yellow Jackets will have players up and down the lineup who have seen ample playing time. That’s a confidence boost for a team moving up to Class 6-A and will play the likes of Houston County, Veterans and Tift County.

“We try to build depth for the next year as well. We always look a year ahead,” Strickland said. “In terms of solidifying a spot, I feel like we’re solid every spot. We’ve got to figure out how those pieces are going to rotate around. Who’s going to be in left, center and right … just get comfortable playing together in those positions and how is our lineup going to shake out? That will be mainly what we focus on right now.”

The first day of preseason practice is Monday.