Resilient Panther squad getting it done

LAKE CITY - Coach Jason Cook already knows one thing about his current Lake City High School baseball squad: They’re resilient.

The Panthers entered the season with numerous question marks about their pitching staff after aces Jesse Matthews and Ryan Fedkenhauer graduated.
“We don’t really have any true pitchers,” Cook said. “All of our guys are position players who also throw. We don’t have that one 90-mph guy at the top of the rotation like some teams do.”

Lake City lost three pitchers and five players in all from last year’s lower state tournament squad.

But despite the departures, the Panthers sit at 9-0 entering tonight’s game at Georgetown.

“We’re not world-beaters by any means, but we’ve been finding ways to win,” Cook said. “I like that about this team. They don’t give in.”

Keeping it simple

With no real power pitchers, the Panthers have relied on a more basic approach on the mound.

“Everyone on the staff just throws strikes and lets the defense make plays,” Reggie Weatherford said. “We’ve gotten a lot of ground balls and fly balls and have kept other teams in the park.”

Lake City has allowed no home runs this season and its top five pitchers have a combined earned run average of 2.87.

The staff is led by Shon Carson, who is 3-0 with a 2.45 ERA in 20 innings. Carson, known more for his bat and base-stealing ability, has never thrown much more than 20 innings in any season.

“(The transition) has been kind of difficult,” Carson said. “I’m mainly just concentrating on throwing strikes and working on my breaking ball.”

Weatherford went 7-1 for the Panthers last year and has started out the season 2-0 with a 4.42 ERA. Shane Miles has allowed just three earned runs in nine innings and sophomore Andrew Hall has a 0.51 ERA in 13 2/3 innings.

“Those guys have stepped up so far this year and given us some quality starts,” Cook said. “We’ve come a long way, but we still have a long way to go.”

The aluminum company

One thing that was not a question mark entering the season was the Panthers’ ability to hit.

Lake City hits .319 as a team, with five players at .333 or better.

“It’s mainly just a lot of work in the cage,” Shane Miles said. “We hit the ball off the tee and take our cuts every day. That’s been our best friend so far.”

Miles leads the Panthers with a .533 average and is tied for the team lead with 12 RBI. Weatherford is batting .516 with an .871 slugging percentage. Carson leads the team with four home runs.

“It makes it difficult to pitch to us,” Weatherford said. “You can’t really pitch around one guy because there’s two more big bats behind him.”

Carson also leads the team with eight stolen bases and has been one of the Panthers’ most productive players since seventh grade. There’s even been some talk about Carson potentially being picked up in the amateur draft.

“I’ve heard about that possibility,” Cook said. “But he’s set himself up for that with all the hard work on the field and in the classroom. Whether he chooses baseball or college or football, he’ll be fun to watch.”

A different way to win

Even though the overall numbers are good, it’s often been a different part of the team that has guided the Panthers to victory on a given night.

“One night, our offense gets 15 hits. The next night, we get four hits, but our pitching staff shuts the other team down,” Miles said. “We always know that some part of our game is going to be on.”

The Panthers have reached the lower state tournament each of the last two seasons, and making it farther this year has been one of the team’s main goals.
“We want to take that next step and go to state,” Weatherford said. “That’s been on our minds all season.”