LWMA Baseball vs. Springwood School

For the first time in a quarter century, Lyman Ward will field a baseball team.

Terry Arwood will lead the Rangers, beginning today, in an eight-game schedule in 2010. The last time LWMA played baseball was 1985.

"This came about because we have been talking about doing it, and when we asked the students, there was an overwhelming amount of support," said Arwood, who coached softball at Beauregard High School last year. "The
response has been astonishing and there's a lot of enthusiasm right now."

A total of 25 players tried out before the final cut to 18 was made. LWMA previously only had football, basketball and soccer.

"We're really starting from scratch," Arwood said. "We were equipped for our other sports, but we're still trying to get balls, uniforms, etc. for the year. That's why we've only scheduled a small number of games, rather than a
full-blown season. This is our infant season and we wanted to kind of use this as a building year."

One problem for the Rangers is they do not have a full-sized baseball field. However, to combat this problem, LWMA reached an agreement with Dadeville to use the Tigers' field on certain days. The rest of the time, the Rangers will make due on their own grass. All of the scheduled games are away contests.

Arwood said early on, the teams' defense is way ahead of the other aspects of the game.

"Right now, the defense, infield and outfield, is really looking solid," Arwood said. "We have several guys that have played ball all their lives and are pretty talented. Our weakness may be our pitching, but we're putting a lot of preparation into that and hitting."

Around the diamond, Jake Archer (3B), Robert Stegall (SS), Josh Archer (2B) Evan Althouse (1B), Alex Bieber (C), Fletcher Carlisle (LF), Ricky Cooper (CF) and John Koob (LF) are leading the way, Arwood said. Stegall, Althouse,
Jake Archer and Beiber are leading candidates for pitching spots.

Today's opening doubleheader starts at 3:30 p.m. at Springwood. The Rangers play tomorrow at Chambers Academy.

"This is a program we want to keep going for a while," Arwood said.

By Dusty Harper | Alex City Outlook
Published Wednesday, March 3, 2010