Clay County Times-Democrat: High School Sports: Baseball season underway (03/04/10)

Members of the 30th edition of the Piggott High School Mohawk baseball team include, from left: Front--manager Login Mooneyham, Cody Mantz, Logan Murray, Spencer Coomer, Keifer Gunn, Jim Copelin, Enoch Richardson, jake Pole and manager Anthony "Hollywood" Alvarez. Back--Zac Taylor, Kyle Wright, Kyle Hardin, Colby Lovelace, Tanner Murray, Zach Redmon, Trent Edwards, Alek Samples, Brody Williams and Hayden McMillon. The team is led by third year head coach Shawn Hearn and assistant Alan Rabjohn.
(Times photo/Tim Blair)

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The 2010 edition of the Piggott Mohawk baseball team is the 30th squad to take to the diamond in the history of the local program. And this year's team promises to be one to remember, as third year head coach Shawn Hearn will field a young but very experienced group. The team, which includes several players that have appeared in post-season competition in both junior and senior Little League, should do well in the talented 3A-3 conference. Monday afternoon the Tribe traveled to Lepanto for their non-conference season opener with the Warriors of EPC, and ended up in a 0-0 tie called by the home team due to darkness.

Junior Alek Samples got the nod in this year's opener and went up against EPC's ace Kyle Maddox. Through seven full innings Samples had a no-hitter going for the Tribe, fanning 13 of the Warrior batters. Meanwhile, Maddox gave up two singles to Piggott's Hayden McMillon, but was also sitting on a 12-hit shutout.

"It was getting pretty dark, and it was up to the home team to make that call," Hearn said of the EPC decision to call the game as a draw. "Of course, they would also have had to change pitchers in the eighth, and that would have been our chance."

Despite the rare no-decision, Hearn was pleased with the outcome. "I saw what I needed to see, and got a good idea of how things should go--we did a lot of things right," he surmised.

The Tribe is expected to depend on the right-handed pitching of Samples, Colby Lovelace and Zach Redmon among others, while Keifer Gunn is the only southpaw on the team.

The Mohawks were scheduled to host the Gosnell Pirates in non-conference play Tuesday afternoon at Independence Park, and will open the conference portion of their schedule on the road at Hoxie Thursday, March 4. They'll also be in action Monday, March 8 as they visit the Rivercrest Colts, and next Tuesday, March 9 they'll host the Rector Cougars in a non-conference game. Unless otherwise noted, all games are set to begin at 4 p.m. with the first pitch.

Hearn also indicated that the team will be planning a special ceremony toward the end of the regular season in observance of the 30th edition of the Mohawk baseball team.