League title contenders already made big gains

Published 12:11 am Tuesday, May 6, 2008

By the time today’s Whitfield County Middle School Athletic League baseball championship game finishes, one local team will be able to look back and appreciate having come a long way quickly.

Actually, even before they take the field for today’s 4:30 p.m. contest at Southeast High, you can argue that both title contenders have come quite far.

Last year, in the final season of the old North Georgia Middle School Athletic League, both New Hope and Valley Point made first-round tourney exits at the hands of eventual title game participants Bagley and Dalton, respectively.

New Hope (8-3) won just four games in the school’s first year of existence, with two of them coming against Valley Point (8-7). The Green Waves had it even rougher — they won just one game last year and that was one of five victories for the program in its first three seasons of baseball.

Today, someone goes from first-round knockout to king of the ring.

“It’s been great to see,” said Kodiaks coach Jamey Middleton of this year’s turnaround for his team. “I’m extremely proud of them and just really happy because of the work ethic they put in this year.”

Middleton’s squad has made its mark this year with consistency at the plate, solid defense and pitching that has gotten better at the right time — late in the season.

New Hope needed a win in its final regular season game against North Whitfield last week to lock up the No. 2 seed for the WCMSAL tourney, but handled a tough task well in beating the Pioneers twice in a row with a semifinal victory last Friday.

Now, the Kodiaks will try to put their bats to work one more time with the biggest prize on the line.

“We’ve had a lot less strikeouts,” Middleton said. “We’ve got half as many this year and we’ve been putting the bat on the ball and making contact. We talked about it before the season and it was really something I thought we should do, hit a lot more in practice.”

Valley Point, the No. 4 seed entering the tourney, defeated Eastbrook in the tourney’s play-in game before securing an upset of No. 1 Westside on Friday with an 8-7 victory.

Like Middleton, Green Waves coach Neil Nichols is just enjoying what his team has been able to accomplish with a little bit more confidence.

“The biggest thing this year is our defense,” Nichols said. “It’s still middle school baseball, so I don’t have Derek Jeters out there and we’re still making mistakes, but not as often or in as big a situation as in the past.”

New Hope has beaten Valley Point three times this season, but the Green Waves have sliced the Kodiaks’ margin of victory with each game. Today, of course, is the ultimate rubber match.

“It’s going to be a good one,” Nichols said. “We’ve got to get after it to stand a chance because they really hustle.”