CMS Baseball Team Had a Great Year

Written By:  Art Price

                  Assistant Coach

The CMS baseball team developed several sayings over the course of their season of 16 wins and 8 losses. The one that best describes what Chuck Muncy, Head Coach and Art Price, Assistant Coach said all season is a quote from Chris Chambliss (former Yankees and Braves first baseman): “If you’re not having fun in baseball, you miss the point of everything.” With their record of 16 wins and 8 losses, the CMS baseball team had fun and learned the great game of baseball. As the coaches have said, this is a wonderful group of young men and each contributed to the very successful and fun season.

 Offensively, CMS team scored a lot of “crooked numbers” (more than one run) per inning. CMS scored 235 runs and allowed 99 runs.

Leading Hitters:

Seth Wills:                    .533 batting average, 5 doubles, 19 stolen bases

Zach Chase:                 .521 batting average, 5 doubles, 17 stolen bases

Justin Bowler:               .500 batting average, 6 doubles, 15 stolen bases

Gabe Quesenberry:        .441 batting average, 1 double, 1 home run

Justin Dunford:              .429 batting average, 2 doubles, 7 stolen bases

There was a season long contest to get players to hit the ball hard and resulting in line drives to the outfield. This contest was called “Grass Stains on a Pearl” (new baseball after often referred to as “pearls”). The results are as follows:

Zach Chase:     13

Seth Wills:        12

Justin Bowler:   11

Leading Pitchers:

Justin Dunford threw 2 no hitters.

Tyler Bray threw 1 no hitter.

Zach Chase, Justin Bowler, Seth Wills, Bailey Orndorff, Aaron Jackson, and Gabe Quesenberry also made significant contributions to the successful season.

This was their first year of pitching from a 60’ 6” mound. All of them made tremendous progress throughout the season. The coaches stressed correct lower and upper body mechanics and learning to command the fast ball for strikes. When the season began, most had command of one pitch- a ball. Through their dedication and hard work, they developed command of a second pitch- a strike.

The coaches and player sincerely appreciate the assistance of the “team moms” – Heather Chase, Diane Fenton, and Sallie Matney.

The coaches and players also sincerely appreciate the assistance and support of Al Bumbry (former Baltimore Orioles outfielder), Steve Bumbry (current VT outfielder, and Willie Upshaw (former Toronto Blue Jays first baseman).

Team members: Zach Chase, Justin Bowler, Seth Wills, Justin Dunford, Gabe Quesenberry, Bailey Orndorff, Jordan Fenton, Aaron Jackson, Grant Vitaliano, Tyler Bray, Logan Adkins, Kenny Custer, Tony Deibler, Josh Durham, Andrew McFee, Josh Moore, Ryan Saunders, and Matt Spurlock. Managers: Austin Gilmore, Brodyn Huddleston, and Alex Phillips.

One last quote for this wonderful group of young men: as Babe Ruth said, “baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.”