RHS pitching staff helps propel entire team

Members of the RHS pitching staff include from left: Landon Ezzell, Reed Smith, Jacob Green, Colin Garrison, Austin Bohannon, Bailey Thompson, Cody Greenhill, and Skyler Stephens

A dominant batter in the game of baseball can help a team build momentum from one inning to the next or force teams to pitch around them and thus, creating an advantage for the team with that dominant batter. But a dominant pitching staff can create an air of impossibility for the opposing team.

Russellville High School’s current pitching staff might be right on the cusp of dominance if you ask Head Coach Chris Heaps. Heaps is no stranger to dominant pitching staffs. During his tenure at Hartselle High School the teams became state champions throughout the 1990s behind suffocating pitching.

“This pitching staff this year is as good as I have seen in my years coaching,” Heaps said. “These guys are as solid of a group of guys as you could ask for and when they get out there and perform like they know they can, then they always give us a great chance to win.”

Winning has been a theme for the Golden Tigers as they entered the weekend with a 17-6 record.

“The schedule that I had planned before the season began was a little bit different than the one we’ve actually been able to play,” Heaps said. “The weather has really mixed us up some, but we’ve been able to get enough games in.

“I think if we had played all the teams I had scheduled our record would look a little bit different,” Heaps said. “We’d be a little bit more under the radar than we are right now heading into the end of the season.”

The weather has affected just about everyone in north Alabama, but Heaps said his team has been able to stay in rhythm somewhat.

“We are blessed to have the facilities that we do have here at Russellville,” Heaps said. “A lot of schools don’t have the kinds of facilities that we do and we’re lucky for that.”

Senior pitcher Jacob Green said being able to come in and get some work done even during rainouts is an advantage.

“Our coaches do a great job of communicating with us and letting us know how things are going to pan out,” Green said. “If it’s your day to pitch but things get rained out then they let you know ahead of time so you can plan for what to do or we are able to come in and throw and maybe simulate a game.”

The RHS pitching staff is a deep one and young to boot. Heaps said there are about ten guys that have seen some action on the mound for the Golden Tigers and the facilities at RHS have helped develop some of the younger talent on the team.

“We might run through six pitchers in a game, so being able to have a deep rotation with some young guys is good for us,” Heaps said.

The bulk of the work on the RHS pitching staff has been carried out by Green, a senior, and Austin Bohannon, a junior. Green had logged an impressive 39.2 innings going into the weekend while Bohannon had logged 31.1.  Both pitchers have an ERA below two runs, which is a strong indication of their contribution to the team. Green has an ERA of 1.79 and Bohannon sits at 1.35.

Others contributing to the RHS pitching staff this season are Skyler Stevens (19.1 innings, 2.20 ERA), Reed Smith (11.0 innings, 5.73 ERA), Bailey Thompson (7.2 innings, 3.89 ERA), Cody Greenhill (18.2 innings, 1.92 ERA), Payton Nichols (7.1 innings, 4.93 ERA), Chad Wray (3 innings, 14.00 ERA), Landon Ezzell (4.0 innings, 0.00 ERA), and Colin Garrison (1.1 inning, 0.00 ERA).

Green, who earlier this year signed to play baseball with Shelton State, said it feels good going up to bat or being out in the field when any of the pitchers are on the mound.

“It’s nice to know that we have a good chance to win no matter who is on the mound,” Green said. “It’s like having a safety net or something. You can just relax and be confident and play ball because every pitcher that gets out there for us is solid and gives us a great chance to win.”

On top of the weather being a hindrance this season, local competition has been an inconsistent variable for the Golden Tigers as well.

“There is not a lot of 5A teams in this area for us to go out and play,” Heaps said. “So it’s hard to know where we stand against some of the other 5A programs in the state. We’ve had to travel a lot and we’ve done whatever we could to track down teams to play.

“We wanted to play Muscle Shoals—they’re a good program—but there has been some kind of issue with that,” Heaps said.

As a team, Heaps and his pitching staff feel like they are solid and progressing, as the season has gone on. Heaps pointed out that they have some really flashy offensive statistics right now and that is mostly because they have beaten up on some outmatched opponents.

“But we are really good all around,” Heaps said. “We’ve been playing pretty well offensively and defensively.”

Heaps said his team has the goal to host the area tournament and continue on one step at a time from there.

“I tell the guys each day that we just have to focus on one game at a time and dominate from one pitch to the next,” Heaps said. “We can’t play average baseball and end up with above average results. We have to play great baseball like I know we can if we want to beat some of the better programs in the state.”

Heaps also said that the 5A north region is the perfect place for his team.

“This is the best region for us right now, for us and how we’re playing as a team,” Heaps said. “We are a little bit under the radar, though some teams are starting to talk about us a little bit.”

Green said that focusing on playing great baseball each day is the team’s main focus, but there are other important goals as well.

“We want to get to Montgomery, obviously, and we want to keep playing well and winning,” Green said. “But we also like to focus on putting forth our best effort each game and continue to grow close as a team. That’s important to us, too.”

Heaps said that he wants to continue to grow the culture for the baseball program at Russellville High School.

“We’ve got a good program and great facilities here,” Heaps said. “Our JV program is solid and we’re developing some good talent. We just need to keep that going forward.”