Bradley Central’s Brandon Thompson watches his hit Tuesday during the 5-3 victory at East Hamilton.Bradley Central’s baseball philosophy hasn’t changed. Coach Travis Adams keeps it simple.
“Our thing has always been to play the game – whatever you’re called on to do, you have to be able to do it,” Adams said. “We’re not a power team. We have to be scrappy and aggressive.”
The Bears have posted 11 wins in their first 13 games and shared the District 5-AAA standings lead with Soddy-Daisy at 6-0, with two-game series victories over Walker Valley, Ooltewah and East Hamilton.
The key has been players taking in the Kool-Aid served by Adams and assistant coach Tanner Thompson.
“When these guys are playing well, we’re probably right up there with the best of teams we’ve had at Bradley,” Adams said. “We’re stressing on-base percentage and quality at-bats, but the dynamics of this team are probably the best I’ve had as far as understanding that concept.”
It helps that two pitchers relegated to the third and fourth spots in the rotation a year ago have stepped up this spring. Brandon Thompson and Gunnar Norwood have three district victories apiece.
“They’ve either gone complete game or gone deep and given us a chance to win,” Adams said. “That’s all you can ask. They haven’t had an ‘off’ day out there yet.”
For most teams, success begins with the pitchers, but that success also requires sound defense and timely hitting.
The defense has been aided by senior catcher Kylar Lynn, who has injected a strength behind the plate after missing the 2015 season. He is 9-for-15 throwing out runners attempting to steal. A freshman, Dylan Standifer, had been a key addition at third base, and Adams also is highly pleased with second baseman Hunter James.
“Yep, Dylan has surprised me, especially since he’s just a freshman,” Adams said, “and Dylan hits in the nine hole and has given us some key at-bats plus being solid defensively.”
They aren’t the only ones. All nine guys have to be on the same page.
“Anytime you’re winning, your defense has to be making plays. You have to go get the outs. It’s baseball. You can’t hold the ball and run the clock,” Adams said. “We definitely count on the defense, because we’re not a team that’s going to sit back and wait to hit home runs.”
Adams has never been that way. He loves playing the percentages almost as much as applying offensive pressure – get a runner on, move him over and do what it takes to get him across the plate.
He and Thompson have sold their players on looking at quality at-bats and on-base percentages more than batting averages.
“We’re not stat-driven, like batting average,” Adams said. “And the batting average is up there pretty good with runners in scoring position, and we’ve gotten a lot of two-out hits in key situations.”
The road is only going to get tougher with county rival Cleveland on the schedule Monday and Tuesday and a two-game series with Soddy-Daisy to come in a couple weeks.
“This season so far has been a pleasant surprise,” Adams said. “We didn’t know a whole lot for sure going into the season. Some of the kids have been tested now, something some of the younger guys hadn’t seen.
“How these guys have competed is certainly nothing to complain about. We’ve been fortunate to have some things handed to us and we capitalized on them, but we’ve also had some key two-out hits.”
Contact Ward Gossett at wgossett@timesfreepress.com or 423-886-4765. Follow him on Twitter @wardgossett.