GREENE COUNTY
The Greene County baseball team isn’t one of the premier programs at the school, but the players that take the diamond every day love it immensely.
The Tigers have played 10 non-varsity games so far this season, and they earned their first win last Monday over the Tigers of Washington-Wilkes.
Greene County head coach William Thompson and assistant coach Brad Evans have both been with the program long enough to see the excitement in the kids’ eyes after the victory.
“I’ve been an assistant here for four years now, so I’ve got to watch this class of seniors play since they were freshmen,” Evans said. “We’ve had more buy-in this season, and they’re excited to learn the game of baseball, even though baseball isn’t one of the popular sports here.”
“I would agree with that because they’re finally seeing themselves get better,” Thompson added. “When they reach a certain accomplishment, they say ‘hey, what can we do to get even better now.’” It was a low-scoring game during the first couple of innings, but the Tigers’ pitching kept them ahead.
Senior Ryan Evans was on the bump and limited the number of opportunities for Washington-Wilkes to score.
The rest of the Tigers’ lineup made contact during their plate appearances, and that helped them get into the driver’s seat. When the final out was made, Greene County won its first game of the season.
Both coaches acknowledged how much it meant to the players, and that they want to keep them motivated and hungry for more success.
“Ryan pitched the entire game, and he’s a senior here at Greene County.
One of his goals was to help the baseball team get a win their senior year, and now he can say he’s done that,” Evans said. “Our defense also played very well in the field, and it just looked like they’re more comfortable in their ability at this point in the season.”
“All the kids played a great game, and to keep them motivated, I told them before the season, if at any point we won a game, I’d paint my head like a baseball and walk around school with it for a day,” Thompson added. “We love to have a good time with each other, and anytime you can motivate a kid by embarrassing yourself a little bit, it helps them work a little harder.”
The Greene County baseball program is now more motivated than ever after its 8-3 win, and it still has a handful of games left in the season.
The Tigers ended the month of March at Nathanael Greene Academy. The team also has Augusta Prep, Putnam and Laney to finish out their month of April.
Evans believes that being the underdogs heading into most games helps with the team’s determination to perform well on the diamond, and Thompson believes the newfound motivation from a victory could help potentially secure another by the end of the season.
“Since it’s been so long since we’ve won a game, people don’t expect us to do well, and sometimes you have to take that stuff and do things out of spite. I think that some of the best athletes do amazing things when people believe that they can’t,” Evans said. “I think a lot of our guys at the beginning of the year heard all of that and decided that we have to prove to them we can, and we’ve done that. By no means am I saying we’re about to go on a big winning streak, but the guys have accomplished one of the goals they had to start the season."
“Our goal in the month of April is to just build off that win and to make small gains through the rest of the season. The guys are definitely more motivated now than they were at the start of the season to play the next game,” Thompson said. “I think we can have a good rest of the year and carry that momentum into the offseason and into next season because we have a more positive outlook that could help us win another by the end of the year.”