Red Bay ranked in Class 2A

By Staff
Mike Self, Franklin County Times
Red Bay baseball coach Donnie Hastings had a pleasant surprise waiting on him when he arrived at school Thursday morning.
"Somebody came up to me and said something about No. 10, and I didn't know what they were talking about," Hastings said. "Then some of our players told me that we were ranked."
The Tigers (12-3) cracked the ASWA Class 2A Top 10 when the first poll was released on Thursday, coming in at No. 10.
"There has definitely been a buzz around school this morning," Hastings said. "The kids are excited about it. I just hope we can use this as incentive to work even harder and prove that we belong up there."
The Tigers have already exceeded their win total from all of last season, when they finished 11-12. They rallied for a 9-7 win over Belmont on Saturday, their first victory over their rivals from Mississippi since 1994.
"The win over Belmont was big for us, because they've made the playoffs over there for the past several years," Hastings said. "It's great to be ranked, but I hope it's something that will motivate us. We haven't played any area games yet, and when those roll around on April 2 we pretty much start over."