Interesting Points on the Pannell Plan and a breakdown on the COLT tourney finals…..

We received these comments on the Charlie Pannell Plan to change the local layout of youth baseball for kids age 14-20 and a wrap up on the recent Colt Tournament finals with Jamestown vs. Dudley#1. These comments came from Lee who is really on the ball. Here’s what Lee had to say.
ON THE PANNELL PLAN:
Charlie’s plan may be a little agressive but something has to change. Colt was unorganized and continues to lose players. The better players play at an additional venue (showcase, Legion, whatever) and many play Colt because they have to. Colt can be a lot of fun. Afterall who wouldn’t want to play baseball with many of their best friends? However the better players will continue to look toward other venues for various reasons.

Parts of Charlie’s plan could work. Colt won’t go away but if it doesn’t change then Colt as we know it will be over. It will be much smaller and the competition will be average at best. As to Palimino, I think there are only a couple of teams anyway. Don’t be surprised to see Palimino shutdown next year.

ON THE COLT TOURNAMENT FINALS:
Don’t have much of a game summary. However Dudley played well all week. I have watched this group of kids for years now. I’ve been predicting for 2 years now that this group at Dudley will win a confernce championship, possibly as soon as next year.

Timely hitting, good defense and pitching did Dudley in in the final game. For Jamestown most everyone hit but Joe Bright, Mike Whited, Bennett Hixson, DeSean Anderson and Zack Hodges were especially strong at the plate. Walt Sparks started on the mound for Jamestown and cruised through 4 innings and was up 9-2 until the rain stopped the game at the top of the 5th with Dudley coming to bat. With the game going to Sunday for completion Billy Stone closed the last three innings for an 11-5 final score. Jamestown pitching was simple. After scouting Dudley earlier in the week Sparks and Stone realized Dudley struggled with any pitch with movement so the plan was to use 2 seam fastballs with movement and sacrifice 2-3 mph for the movement along with a steady diet of change-ups and a few curve balls. This produced 4 ground ball singles, 0 extra base hits, a few timely strike outs and a lot of infield put outs which were gobbled up by Hixson, Whited, Hodges and Stone. Stone then came in with the same plan as he was able to get ground balls and pop-ups with his change-up. Both pitchers pitched for contact and keeping the Dudley hitters off balance knowing the defense behind them would do their job.

Dudley is very talented and much improved. Coach Crawford and others in the community should be very proud of the revitalization of quality baseball in the Dudley district.

As to the balk call, the batter stepped out, the umpire never called time out and the pitcher started his motion and completed his motion yet never through the baseball. The umpires dcleared balk, Alan did not think so since the batter asked for time although the umpire never gave the batter time. What caused some of the confusion was the umpires then went to the tourney committee for a ruling and the men had to go to their car to find some rules. They made the decision that it was no balk.

The environment was already a little tense due to several situations where one of the Grimsley coaches (not Alan) was stealing signs and signaling his batters, Stealing signs is part of baseball. Leaning out on the field and going out all the way in the dirt to get them is not. The grounds crew never painted in a coaches box so the coach contined to get right up against the base line and lean in looking for a sign (can’t really blame him, there was no coaches box). Many parents knew what was going on since some had played for this coach in AAU and were very familiar with the process. After notifying the Jamestown coaches they spoke with the umpires and the Grimsley coach was told by the umpires to stay off the field and back in the grass several feet where a coaches box should have been painted. This direction from the umpires combined with a few high and tight pitches seemed to correct the situation.