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VERY interesting T-State gets a ranking when they lost at home to McNeese(21-25) and 2 of 3 at Central Arkansas(19-24) and they arent exactly on a string of wins, only winning 6 of their last 10. College baseball is really changing, restricting locker rooms sizes down to 35players, and these new bats are impacting avg arms(making them quality guys) allowing their teams to compete in midweek games and eating innings on the weekends. I think it speaks volumes for the national respect the Southland Conference is obviously receiving this year. As for Tx State, they played UT close(2-0,3-1losses), Rice close(11-10loss), Baylor-split, and TCU(3-1Loss). They are in a position to move up in the polls also, with 3 with UTSA, midweeks with A&M and Rice and 3 more with Nicholls their next 10 games. If they can sweep or win 5 of 6 against conference foes(UTSA-Nicholls) and split their matchups with Rice-A&M, they could move up a few spots as well. But it wont be easy for UTSA has found themselves and Corbett can 'coach it up', his kids play hard for him. UTSA has won 10 of their last 13, beating the Tx A&M yesterday 3-2. In the past, Southland teams could run off 12 or 13 in a row and not get recognized, Very interesting. But if you look at the Power Conferences, (SEC Pac10, ACC, Big12, etc) many teams are less then 10games above 500, so maybe its a matter of who's left this week to rank... NOT at all bashing T-State, just stating facts and was "wow'd" when I heard this based on their results in the last 10 games... Being an ex Southland player and coach, and know how difficult is was to win consistently and recruit a stable of "3 or 4 tool" players. VERY HAPPY to see this conference getting recognized nationally. The Southland Conference has quality coaches, athletic and knowledgable players, and the facilities have really improved the past 3 or so seasons with Sam Houston, Lamar, Tx State, Southeastern, etc... Fackler

Got a text Sunday from Coach Thomas at Ozen making me aware "WILEY COLLEGE" will be conducting a TRYOUT-WORKOUT to be held at Ozen High School in Beaumont on Saturday May 7th.  Open to all area players. [b]Wiley College [/b] | 903.927.3300 | 711 Wiley Avenue, Marshall, Texas 75670 They are NAIA Affiliated and compete in the "Red River" conference - www.redriverconference.com/members.php Arrive Saturday, May 7, 1030am, in baseball workout gear, glove, and open to SENIORS ONLY. WILEY COLLEGE / www.wileyc.edu/athletics/bb.asp No cost to workout from my understanding! Fackler

In the day n age of "self promoting", its really nice to see "Team" accomplishments.... An "Ataboys" - "Atagirls" out to Evadale Athletics.... One question, Is it the same "athletic director" during this entire 4 years of this  "Team Commitment"? Fackler

Local pitcher who was pulled from his senior season at PNG due to arm issues, is already back and doing really well for Coach Gilligan at Lamar. Kane Benoit who had to have Tommy John surgery roughly 1 year to the month, is back at the 90mph range, with 7 appearances, a 2.89ERA  1-0Record. What a great story for Kane and his family. Those who remember, Kane chose to stay close to home so friends and family could watch him play college baseball. So those in the community, grab your son and get out to watch the Cardinals, for they carry 12-15 local players on roster. Coach Gilligan is closing in on yet another milestone, 1200-NCAA Wins as a head coach. He should accomplish this by next weekend at worst against NORTHWESTERN STATE. So if you have free time, get out and watch college baseball at Lamar. Congrats Kane and an early congrats to Coach G.... Locally - Hester and Bunner from Vidor Harrington Mcinnis Benoit from PNG, The Roebuck boys from Sour Lake Laird Vidrine and Mcfarland from Nederland DD Lott from Ozen  

Thanks Tyler for expressing this from a "college players" perspective. Very well written kiddo!

AJ, Thats was one of my "Client News" emails I sent almost a year ago, glad you enjoyed it and saved it, thanks. I now need to get the teenager in here to cut and paste it so I can restore it back on my new laptop. Thanks Fackler

Posted this thread at 11am on Thursday Friday 6pm - 950views Sunday 9pm - 1070views Tuesday 11am - 1182views 5 Comments-Responses

I highly recommend, those who play "Select Baseball", get out and get involved with your "community" team. Whether its senior league, babe ruth, or so on, there should be some form of commitment by these young men to their community teams-programs and to their friends who may not be fortunate enough to financially travel with a select team. Go be a "Dodger" or "Cardinal" or a "Yankee" once a week and help your friends improve by making better rosters with more talented players.... Its becoming a dying breed and its really unfortunate that now leagues must compete against other league teams due to the lack of interest of these young men. We used to have 8-12 teams full roster at any one community ballpark, now it seems kids dont want to get out in the heat or commit to league play during the week. Keep your pitch counts down in league play, maybe commit to 2 innings per week pitching, so it doesnt effect your weekend overuse pitching wise....but go get the defensive reps and learn the game in a lilttle less intense environment with babe ruth, senior league, etc.... Hitting is tough enough on weekends, so get the reps to improve your hitting with mid week baseball... It is definetly "worthy of the investment" by the player-parents to perform in league play,(weekday baseball), for it WILL ENHANCE the skills of the young player involved... without question it aids in development. I'd like to hear others input on this topic, even if in disagreement, just to bring this topic to the forefront for its def worth addressing... Fackler

I'd enjoy reading and getting insight on what the avg fan thinks the expectations should be of a baseball player in 2011 and what the expectations should be of todays coaches with the resources they are given at these local programs. It appears when I read the threads on the site, and more often, many express some forms of disappointment, pass judgements and opinions towards the staffs who supervise and teach these young men.... I've read about coaches not executing proper 'X's n O's", the kids should "just have fun", programs not developing underclassman properly, "individual favoritsim", not making quality pitching changes, not overseeing pitch counts, not making "proper moves" in a game, and so on... So, those who post "often" please place your values-expectations on both the player and coaches from area schools. And please, dont list a specific player or coaches name, this isn't about "attacking" someone publicly, its about feeling the pulse of the average fan and gaining insight on the the expectations of a "team" player's "personal initiatives to improve his knowledge, work habits, and character and the expectations on the coaches to display the best format to achieve success, all coming from a "fans" perspective. Also, sign your name on the post if you will, since these coaches are "put out there" at the grass roots level and seem to get "public attention" for their downfalls, lets teach these young men who read these threads, it isnt "acceptable" to attack others publicly without assuming some sense of "accountability" on the "posters" part... Once again, just wanting to know what the "public" thinks about the part the player should play and what the coach is expected to give each day... Fackler

Doing a great job Coach Walton... Keep stringing them wins together coach...

Wishing Coach Walton, his staff, and players a congrats up to this point of the season as well as 'Good Luck to the 'Bruin' Baseball Family.

 1st off, Bridge City has had a huge run the past 3 seasons and Chad Landry was the right person hired and the right person for the BC Job, so to go after the coach is unjust.... His program is being humbled some, but to blame him? Im just not seeing it... His positive impact way outweighs the disappointments of "one week" of baseball.  Secondly, The Hicks, Robertson factor is in effect right now, in years past Matty and Joseph refused to have bad performances in back to back games, they always responded, and right now in the "2nd season", being district, Bridge City has to have some game to game consistency from impact type players... giving up only 4 runs in a high school game should spell "Wins", but BCity is searching for clutch hitters, something those who have evaluated Bridge City this season, knew would be a concern for them.  After the Silsbee loss, it somewhat challenged the "Bridge City Tradition of Winning", shook some confidence, and Zane Anderson, who is a pitcher who thrives on hitters aggressiveness and creates frustration was the wrong pitcher at the right time to get after Cardinal-Nation and their somewhat shaky confidence level.  Didnt we see PNG just go through the same thing? Havent they responded quiet well? Every season has peaks and valleys and you hope your just good enough when you arent playing your A-Game...  This was West Orange Starks "playoff-type" game after such a challenging season up to this point, and now they are right back in the hunt if they can remain humble....they were much more motivated to find that "feel good" game and Anderson and company responded... If you have yet to see this young man Anderson, after 3 seasons now of over 80% wins as a starting pitcher, not many should be suprised, he said "give me the ball" Im going out and getting us this one...  If you have yet to figure it out, Baseball IS Mental period and high school kids at times dont know how to recognize how to fix some failures mentally, but Landry is a smart guy, he will figure it out for those kids, real quick.  The Cards and Landry will right the wrongs and all will be fine in Cardinal country, its just a lil piece of humble pie to a community who has worked hard and been blessed with winning for so so many years and its like an eclipse, it just inevitable that its going to happen every once in a while...its high school sports, wins and losses just tend to balance out over the long haul.

Westend - Play should not resume till pitcher toes rubber, EVEN IF PLAY IS RESUMED, if the pitcher gets anywhere "inside" the dirt circle "without" the ball, consider it a balk. Go utube "LSU-UC-Irvine" in regional hidden ball trick whereby Maineiri goes ballistic and Sanchez gets tossed... Play was live after ground ball but notice where pitcher is standing.... Thats just bad umpiring to grant "Live Ball" before a pitcher gets to the mound.... Sportsman28 - A Batter who is walked can "NOT" pass the bag, if that was the case all runners would be allowed the same luxury, it would be the same as a visit to the mound on ball 4, the ump will NOT grant it till the batter reaches contact with the 1st base bag....  ball 4 grants a batter and all runners "90 foot advancement", not 91 feet even if that means foul territory, that doesnt matter.... Professionally baseball allows it which is odd, yet grass roots baseball does not permit it.... Fackler

I am in need of an "updated" list of non-committed guys for Junior College Coaches. We need to get these coaches in here at ballfields now that every one is in mid-season form. Kody Smith - LCM Corbin Bell - Lumberton Taylor Townsend - Lumberton Amir Jalali - PNG Jordan Darnall - WOS Jacob Pitts - Nederland Zane Anderson - WOS Tyler Smith - Nederland Lance Brown - Silsbee Collin Gizzi - PNG Stephen Schlett - Nederland Brandon Provost - PNG Anthony Babino - Nederland Hunter Knox - PNG Jacob Soisson - Jasper Hunter Denzlinger - PNG Gregory Monette - Ozen Forest Zoch - Bridge City Send me names of kids I may be overlooking, Thanks in advance. Fackler

How does one rank teams is the question. Its tough this season Does one, if any, really think 13 teams are better than PNG? Every high school team peaks and valleys, its those who come out of the "slump" the quickest who remains a tough opponent. Unfortunately for PNG, looks like they werent prepared for Livingston taking for granted at home with Stone on the mound, and didnt produce runs... then ran into a even opponent in Nederland and got beat....PNG who has 2 losses by 1 run, one taking 11innnings, drops to 14? ..... Then you have Westbrook who has won 8 or 9 of their last 11, Silsbee, Huffman, LCM... All of which are playing good baseball right now... Are these teams "ranked" above these in particular worthy of beating them in a head to head ballgame? LCM 1  and NED 2(lost 1 inning to Vidor which cost them the game) but after that, flip a coin "THIS WEEK".. and Silsbee is a train gaining momentum but they have to beat Bridge City before people give them their due acknowledgment, fair or unfair, just the way it is, Bridge City has earned that type of respect in district... yet Silsbee, who more people need to see perform, was the dark horse in 3A's this season, Silsbee is a talented bunch. This season compared to previous seasons, its tough to rank teams. The concern, Id have as a coach, is team defenses are not consistent nor is the situational hitting. The 4a baseball here is going to remain tough because so many clubs have an arm who can beat any club on any given night. Stone, Maxwell, Hagler, Townsend, KSmith, T Smith, Pitts, C Bell, Duplant, now Livingston runs out the Moore kid that as a group can beat any team, due to ability to get the strikeouts in "impact situations"... Barbers Hill and Crosby run out an arm who can beat anyone, so how does one rank them? The thing thats ALWAYS concerned me in this area is the bunt game... not many teams are consistent bunting the ball therefore not many teams are forced to be sound at defending it and when the playoffs come, the concerns are "situational offense & defense" and how our locals defend it as well as execute it. Yet the sacrifices and attention to detail these local high school coaches show is very admirable and they all do great jobs at their schools with the resources they are given...

Looking at PNGs schedule, I'd see Stone throwing "Tuesday" against Livingston to keep his rest days in effect and a better rotation for the NDN's on the backside of the district schedule. Dont see Stone facing Nederland this Friday unless he is able to keep his pitch count down Tuesday then be able to work finishing an inning/close vs NED. He could use Friday as his bullpen session as a reliever. He would basically face each district team "at home" during district. Very tough for opponents to walk into the reservation walking out with a win. Win every game at home., split with 2 of the big 3, (Vidor, LCM, and Nederland), and sweep all others, prob leads one to believe they'd capture "district champs" with 2 losses. Brevelle has done a tremendous job not an ounce of overuse inning wise and pitch count wise. All with it being a perfect world for PNG, but its high school sports, should be an interesting go, the 1st side of district play Fackler

Legendary coach Gary Ward is an assistant coach with New Mexico State who is in town with Cal State-Northridge and Univ San Francisco at Lamar University today. Mr Gary Ward was the innovator of the "Blast" system with hitting when he was "The Man" in college baseball in the 80's at Oklahoma State, a annual participant at Rosenblatt with notable players such as Robin Ventura(58game hitting streak-NCAA Record) and Pete Incaviglia(48homeruns one season-NCAA Record) as well as bypass all 3 levels of minor league baseball and played his first Professional Game in the big leagues never seeing a minor league field.... Id recommend all those who's high school games rained out, go watch some good division 1 level baseball over at Vincent Beck... The days of the 5 power conferences(SEC-Big12-ACC-Pac10) verse mid-major conferences isnt such a large "gap" anymore competitive wise and talent base wise... the 35man locker rooms n increase in facility budgets has closed that gap alot, its why we see so many mid-majors now winning more games vs the power conferences as well as midmajors getting to Omaha not so far-fetched anymore.... These high school guys need to see more and more of the game at the collegaite level...' All game times are probably pushed back today so from 3pm on till 10, Id imagine college baseball WILL be played today.... Fackler

Mathew Hicks is a "cult hero",  You get one that comes along about every 12-15yrs, regardless of the success he is earning right now, let failure come into his neighborhood and the kid will embrace as if he is expecting its path and will be one step ahead of it.... Ragin Cajuns are already on board with this kid... defy's the prototypes and doesnt give it a "chip on his shoulder" thought or motivating edge... A true character kid who has been handed every excuse possible to make a bad choice or even quit the game.... but the young man keeps battling on with that subtle lil smile and a passionate heart. Fackler

We at Hitters INC in Bridge City believe, As the famous Dr Ron Shugart who once said, "When you are "on", you are really good that day"

Interesting report: Wonder if these guys below attended enough PG Events over the past year: For one would think these young men would def be on this list as well. Quality prospect-type players for sure from SETx. Derrian James - Westbrook Austin Stone - PNG Jeremy Gabryszwski - Crosby Trevin Sonnier - Nederland Wayne Stanley - Lumberton

Tremendous job with putting in the time and effort for posting HS weekly schedule. Such a HUGE resource to guys like me who have to get out and see every SETX and SWLa high school ballclubs play in Feb and March. Is this something you will do weekly? Do they send game times to you by chance? Great Job! Chris Fackler

Wanting to make the Baseball Community aware, Hamshire-Fannet catcher Kyle Markum makes his commitment to Wharton Junior College yesterday. An all around quality young man who progressed really quick the past 6-8months. Congrats to his mom Tammy his dad Mike and obviously to Wharton Head Coach Javier Solis for taking time to drive down to evaluate Kyle this summer, the GTB Fall Prospect League, as well as the Hitters Inc Junior College Camp in December. Congrats again Kyle! Chris Fackler

Admin, To answer your question, Kael attended the Jr College Camp at Hitters Inc(and Bridge City High) in late Dec, he sat at 87 on the mound, big strong body, arm worked really well. All the Junior Colleges who attended liked him and LSUe brought him in to visit Eunice and signed him, but Kael shows enough athleticism to be a 2way guy. My talks with Coach Willis, say he will get an opportunity at being a position guy who pitches.... Good looking kid from a good family, Chris Fackler

Bridge City High and Coach Landry use our 11,000sq ft facility, [u]Hitters Inc Training Academy [/u] behind the BC Little League Fields. It has multiple instructional batting cages, bullpens, an indoor infield for defensive work, and its climate controlled.

Machine Baseball 14's, head coached by Chris Fackler, is now searching to finalize its roster for the Spring. I am looking for the following: Left Handed Pitcher or pitchers 1st baseman - prefereably left handed hitter or switch hitter Centerfielder, sound defensively first Quality character kid who is open to adjustments and change Unselfish player who is willing to DEVELOP, whereby we teach all 9 positions to the entire roster Parents who are about the TEAM and want to be a part of a "family" atmosphere The Player can be either 13 or 14 yrs of age if the skill level can compete at the 14under level I rotate kids throughout tournaments whereby all kids receive equal playing time with development at practices and games. The core of the ballclub is in place, we need to add a few more pieces, so please call, email, or text me this week. We play two tournaments per month and train twice per week thru the end of June. This is something I want to finalize this week and complete the roster, so if you as a parent have interest or know of a player who fits the qualities above, please contact me, Thanks, [email protected]