Ridge Manor Looks To Build On Success

A year ago many of the members of this season's Ridge Manor AA Rookies (ages 7-8) All-Stars made league history. They won.

The 2007 Ridge Manor T-Ball squad went 2-2, the first two all-star victories the league had experience at any level. Ridge Manor also notched a win with the AA Rookies last season and this year won another T-Ball game.

Many of last year's triumphant T-Ballers have moved up to the AA Rookies. Manager Bryan Griffin will head a roster of Marin Aske, Marrick Aske, Tavis Drake, Will Garland, Christopher Griffin, Will Hamlin, Dakota Jernigan, Austin Legg, Michael Lineberry, Ryan Linville, Zack Mitchell and J.T. Short.

Ridge Manor opens the District 6 Tournament today at Anderson Snow Sports Complex, taking on Sumter at 10 a.m.

"We used to go into tournaments thinking let's not look ridiculous," Coach Griffin said. "Now we're going into them looking to be competitive. So it is changing.

"We're really focused as coaches that we're going to at least beat one team. We feel we can play with everybody if our pitching does as well as it can do."

Griffin admits he has a young team, but he believes it has strong pitching. Unlike many leagues, Ridge Manor does not use a pitching machine nor has coaches pitch at this level in the regular season.

According to the coach, his son Christopher has thrown a complete six-inning game, and he hopes experiences such as that will give his staff an edge in endurance. Legg, Mitchell and Lineberry are also pitchers.

"They don't throw extremely hard, but they're pretty consistent in the strike zone," Griffin said. "The majority of runs scored at this level are kids getting walked, then they steal two bases and eventually score on a passed ball.

"Our kids pitch the whole game. That helps in our pitching, hurts in our batting."

Griffin feels his hitters are too used to receiving walks, and have a tendency to look for a free pass rather than swing the bat.

He said his team has worked on hitting since a scrimmage with Spring Hill National earlier in the week, a 12-6 loss that he felt exposed the offensive weakness.

While realistically Griffin admitted his club may not be ready to advance out of the 10-team district, he feels this Ridge Manor crew can build on last year and toward the next.

"We look for them to be competitive," Griffin said. "Our goal is we don't care about wins and losses. We want to be competitive and hopefully next year we'll be a little better."

2008 Ridge Manor Rookies (ages 7-8) All Stars
Name Position
Marin Aske LF
Marrick Aske LF
Tavis Drake SS
Will Garland RF
Christopher Griffin P
Will Hamlin 2B
Dakota Jernigan 1B
Austin Legg P
Michael Lineberry C
Ryan Linville CF
Zack Mitchell 3B
J.T. Short LF
Head coach: Bryan Griffin
Assistant coach: Joey Augler, Don Griffin, Paul Lineberry