Solid senior leadership a key for Knights

By By Marty Stamper / EMG sports assistant
March 4, 2003
After missing the 2002 state baseball playoffs due to an ineligible player, the West Lauderdale Knights are ready to get back to the business of winning championships this spring.
The Knights already have won a state-record 10 championships.
The Knights had wrapped up the 2002 Division 5-3A title, when Jamie Fontan was declared ineligible by the MHSAA and West was removed from the playoffs.
Fontan, like the Knights, has opened the 2003 season on a tear, striking out 15, while walking one, in a 5-2 league win over Carthage. He allowed just one hit.
The Knights' lineup has senior Richie McAllister at first base, freshman Drew Snider at second base, junior Bo Davis or senior Trent Posey at shortstop, and Davis, junior Parker Temple, or senior C. Jay Fountain at third base.
Fountain is currently hampered with a shoulder injury. Junior Jay Warren starts in left field, sophomore Randy Diveley is in center, and junior Cody Powell is in right.
Senior Miles Joyner is behind the plate. Posey, Davis, Snider, Temple, Fountain, sophomore Justin Gentry, and freshman Cory Hart join Fontan on the mound.
We have more power this year and we have real good team speed," Boatner added.
Posey, a Delta State signee, was named to The Clarion-Ledger's Dandy Dozen.
One thing Boatner, the state's second-winningest baseball coach, can't control is the wet weather.