Junior, Justin Fike returns for the Tucker County Baseball team this season
By Dave Helmick
TuckerCountySports.Com
The Tucker County Baseball team had a disappointing 2015 season and this year’s team looks to turn the program around with some experience returning.
Josh Evans is back for his third year as Tucker County High School Baseball head coach. Coach Evans is optimistic about this year’s team because of the nice weather the team is on the field earlier than normal. Coach Evans said, “We have been out on the field a lot, I feel more comfortable than in years past because we have been out on the field more.” There are some key players returning for this year and that has Coach Evans also looking forward to a good year saying, “We have several returning players because we mixed in a lot of players last year.” Players returning that will make an impact are Junior Justin Fike who returns as the team’s leading hitter and catcher. The Mt. Lions also return some kids who got varsity experience last year in Seniors Aiden Bunnell, Eric McCrum, Juniors Slayer Liller, Garrett Carrico and Sophomores Michael German and Shane Liller. Players that make up the team are as follows: Seniors, Eric McCrum, Aiden Bunnell, Andrew Bennett, Nick Wolford, Isaiah Hollis, Seth Michael and Zach Bishoff. Juniors, Justin Fike, Quinn Buckley, Kendall Gooden, Slayer Liller, Gary Meloy, Josh Freeman, Jarred Johnson, Brendon Corbitt and Garrett Carrico. Sophomores, Shane Liller, Michael Gherman, Bryan Prevatte and Austin Evers. Freshmen, Corrick Ambrose, Alec Cummings, Byron Gidley, Shane Humphrey, Cameron Wamsley and Justin Purnell.
The schedule is similar to the past few years. Tucker County competes in the PVC conference and in Region 2, where the competition is the best in the state in Class “A”. Coach Evans spoke about his opponents on his schedule, “We have one of the toughest Regions in the state for single A, in the Metro News Power Rankings that came out a few days ago, 5 of the top 10 teams in Single A came out of our Region. The Mt. Lions will play 3 of those top 10 teams 2 times this season. Those teams are Moorefield, Pendleton County and East Hardy. Other teams on the schedule for Tucker County this year is Tygarts Valley, Union, Trinity, Keyser, Phillip-Barbour, Pocahontas County, Southern, Preston, Webster County and Richwood.
Come out and support this Mt. Lion team as they open their home season this week. The Mt. Lions will play on the road at Pendleton County tonight, at Tygarts Valley Thursday, at Pocahontas County Friday and then they will host Richwood on Saturday at 1pm. Check out the full schedule listed and as always follow all Tucker County Sports at TuckerCountySports.Com.
