Skyler AndersonSkyler Anderson and Josh Antwine are best friends as well as Boyd-Buchanan baseball players, and they had decided to continue playing together next year at Tennessee Temple.
Tennessee Temple changed their minds. It wasn't coach Greg Bartley, but a decision much higher up the Temple ladder. The school is merging with Piedmont International in North Carolina and closing the Chattanooga campus.
"When we found out Temple was closing, both were disappointed," Boyd-Buchanan coach Josh Rider said. "They liked Coach Bartley a lot, and they were going to have the opportunity to bat and play in the field in addition to pitching."
So the recruiting process has started anew.
"We'll find them a place to play," Rider said. "Most schools always have (scholarship) money for an extra arm or two. As a middle infielder or outfielder it might be tougher, but pitching is what they do best."
Anderson struck out 65 in 57 1/3 innings with a 0.98 earned run average on his way to an 8-2 record last year, while Antwine was 4-3 with 33 strikeouts in 33 innings.
Rider has reached out and gotten some responses from coaches at different levels -- NCAA, NAIA and junior colleges -- some through an Internet site called Field Level, and Antwine has been getting interest from Coppin State in Baltimore. Anderson is looking at Reinhardt University in Waleska, Ga., and Andrew Junior College in Cuthbert, Ga.
"For whatever reason this area just doesn't get recruited. I've been surprised," Rider said. "These guys aren't going to blow you away on a radar gun, but both know how to pitch. They're low- to mid-80s (mph) guys with the potential to get into the high 80s."
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him at Twitter.com/wardgossett.