Hey, any of you on this board from this region? A post on the general section was talking about who knows each other, just curious if any of you are from around where I am. Maybe we'll run into each other sometime. Maybe we play each other and can meet. Who knows? Don't need any names, but maybe we can leave a note about what team your kid is on.

My son plays for Centennial.

Bballman,
I was at the Roswell / Centennial game tonight with my 10 year old. It was a great game. I thought you said you son pitched for Centennial, not sure if that was him but he did a great job. Both teams seem headed to the playoffs.

Hey Knapper1. Yeah, that was him pitching for Centennial. Sure was a tough loss. Can't ask much more of him, especially as a freshman. One run in 6 innings against the #1 team. I know I was a lot more nervous before the game than he was. Not sure if he really gets the magnitude of what he's doing yet. I'll take it that way though. He just wants to go out there and do his thing.

Glad to hear there is someone else out there from this area. Didn't think I'd ever get a response to this post. Keep in touch.

He did a great job. Our neighbor plays for Roswell so we go to a few games. I like your son's delivery, you did a good job teaching him. We're just starting out as my son is 10 and a lefty pitcher. I will be looking to get him some lessons as I can only do so much, and I think he'll listens better to others. Keep up the good work.

Bballman,
Do you have any pitching coach recommendations?

The guy my son has always used is only around in Dec and Jan now since he coaches for a minor league team. However, there is a guy I have talked to and heard good things about that works out of Sports-a-Rama in Roswell. His name is Carlos Gomez. He is a scout for the Diamondbacks and is supposed to be very good, but may be hard to get in to see. Usually works on Sundays I believe. I'd call over there and see if he's going to be in anytime soon. I'm just not sure of his schedule right now. We'd go, but it is tough while the season is under way. I'll probably try to hook up with him once our summer season is done. Let me know if you can get in with him and if you can, how it goes.

The website doesn't show his name as a coach. Have you heard of Preston Peavy?

No, I don't know him. Carlos may not be listed as an instructor, but, I know he does do lessons there. The number is 678-352-0006. Just ask to see if they know when he will be in next.

I called and they said he doesn't come in anymore. I'll find someone, no hurry, just want to find a good one from the start. I saw the Kell score, they have a good team. You'll get them next game.

yeah, we did not have a good game. Our starter gave up 8 in the first. Not pretty. My son is scheduled to start Monday night against Alpharetta. Looks like rain though. I think if it gets rained out he'll go against Pope on Wednesday. That will be another challenge. Hope our guys score some runs for him.

Good luck finding a pitching coach. Maybe try John Devore up in Cumming. Or try Brian Edmunsdon. He is with Auterson Baseball. They have a web site you can google. I have heard good things about both of them. Wish I could help more, but we've been with the same guy for about 6 years and he's not available during the MLB season any more.

I saw that Centennial has taken some loses lately as has Roswell. How has your son done lately? Looks like it will be hard for Centennial to make the playoffs this year.

Yeah, I think we're done. He lost to Pope 6-2. Gave up 5 earned. Didn't pitch too bad. Gave up two solo shots and they scored some cheap runs. Overall a pretty good outing.

Just got shelled last night against Walton. He beat them last time we played. Went six giving up 3. Last night he gave up 9 in 3+. He was throwing hard, but not mixing things up enough. I told him he needed to start shaking off the catcher and take some responsibility for what he throws and how he approaches hitters. He has a good idea and told me exactly what he wanted to do with some of the hitters.

I think it will wind up being a valuable learning experience for him. He is a freshman, so I think taking this year as learning will do nothing but help as he gets older.

If you want, I talked about this in the general items forum under High School Reporting Thread.

He will start again Friday night against Campbell at Centennial. Maybe I'll see you around some time.

He's doing great for a freshman. As you said, it's a great learning experience for him. I'm just starting the journey and it's fun to get great information to help. On the pitching coach, I'm going to wait till after his season as they have so many makeup games it's not easy fitting any quality time with a coach. Maybe late may we'll get him started and on a nice program to learn and get some good fundamentals to build on.

When I was at the Roswell game and watching them play centennial I was sitting next to my daughters teacher and she was there with her son to watch your son pitch. She said her son plays with your son on summer team. Small world...

Yeah, it is a small world. You are probably smart in waiting until between seasons to get lessons. We rarely have time to get in to see someone during the season. It's usually during Dec. and Jan. we get the work with our instructor. Between spring/summer ball and fall ball, he is throwing too much to make it practical to throw for a lesson in between.

So far it has been a very fun journey. He started to play ball when he was 7 and started pitching when he was 8. I has been a learning and growing experience ever since. It has been very enjoyable for me to see the growth. I have tried to keep an environment for him where it is still fun. I don't want him to wind up burnt out, or feeling like this is some type of job. We still talk about pitching strategy and ways he can get better. Believe it or not, he still listens to me in that area. Hitting is a different story. So far, it is still fun for him. Hope it stays that way.

Keep me updated on what's going on. Talk to you soon Knap.

Hey Knap, son did not go against Campbell Friday night. Went against Milton Monday night instead. Went 7 innings, 1 unearned run, 3 hits, 67 pitches for the 3-1 win. Came back fine from the loss.

Good news. I saw the Campbell score and was thinking that couldn't be correct. I was going to come watch Roswell play you guys tomorrow but son has a rainout game to makeup. I guess your season is over this week, will your son pitch anymore? Sounds like he's had a great year.

He may go Friday night out at Kell. Don't know yet. That will be the last game. If he doesn't start, I'm sure he'll be available in relief since he didn't throw that many pitches against Milton.

Overall, he has had a real good season. He really only had one bad outing and that was against Walton the second time around. Overall he is 3-3 with a 4.0 ERA. Take out that one game and he is 3-2 with a 2.69 ERA. One of those losses was the 1-0 loss against Roswell. Not too bad considering he pitched against the top 3 teams in the state (S. Forsyth, Roswell and Pope). He went 1-2 against them with a 3.3 ERA. I'll take it as a freshman. I can only see better things to come. Looking forward to the next few years.

Keep in touch Knapp.

bballman,
Was that your son's team that beat the Summer Roswell Hornet team this past weekend? Good Job! I'm not sure the player makeup of the Hornet summer team, I assume it's a mixture of varsity & junior varsity.

That was them. Georgia Hurricanes. One of the freshman from the Centennial team that played a good bit of varsity pitched the first 5 innings and my son came in and closed it in the 6th.

Yes, from what I heard they are a combination of both. None of their real studs, but they had a number of rising jr's and sr's as well as some rising soph's and at least one rising freshman.

Were you there?

I wasn't there, just happened to check their website and they showed the scores and I remembered your son's team name. I take my son around to different tournaments so he can see the different skill level. We're in summer mode and vacation mode as I decided not to let him play in the all star team because of other commitments i.e. swimteam and vacation. After that he'll start lessons for next season. The big question is what year will he play. He's the youngest in his grade (going into 5th august birthday) so he could play up with his grade i.e 11u or play 10u. I think he could make the 11u team but he'd be more dominant at 10u.