CAIRO – Cairo’s baseball season starts next week when it hosts Lowndes in a preseason scrimmage on Feb. 6. The regular season begins Feb. 14 at Thomasville for new head coach Cooper Mayhall and experienced group of Syrupmakers, highlighted by nine seniors.

“We’re pretty experienced, senior heavy. We also have a very good young group. We’re feeling good,” said Mayhall. “It’s a good group (of seniors). They’ve all stuck together. I’ve had them since ninth grade and JV. It’s a group I’m excited for and a group I’m going to hate to see go.”

Cairo’s senior class includes shortstop Cannon Maige, outfielder Gage Schafer, infielder/outfielder R.W. Jones, pitcher Ty Hatcher, catcher/pitcher Eli Cooper, outfielder Cayden Collins, infielder Kale Bearden, infielder Jaxon Cox and outfielder Matthew Mobley.

Hatcher’s return from injury should bolster a team looking to repeat as region champions. Hatcher was named the Region 1-4A pitcher of the year as a sophomore but was sidelined his junior season because of an elbow injury.

“We’re really excited to have him back,” Mayhall said. “It’s just getting him back up to the speed of the game, mound presence and stuff like that; just getting back in there and back on the horse.

“I have no concerns with him. I think he’s going to step right back up, and it’ll be like he never left.”

Hatcher’s absence allowed other Syrupmakers to see time on the mound last year, and they were instrumental in Cairo’s 16-12 season.

In Cairo’s three-game sweep of Bainbridge that clinched the region championship, Maige pitched two innings of one-run ball that helped Cairo win 8-4 in the series finale. Maige also pitched the final three innings of Cairo’s 9-7 win in the series opener. Cooper, the team’s No. 2 pitcher this year, fired seven innings of shutout baseball to blank Bainbridge 3-0.

“A lot of guys were forced to step up and eat innings. I think in the long run it’s going to help us out,” Mayhall said.