EASLEY — It was the season opener for both teams — the bleachers were packed, the temperature was in the low 50s and it felt more like a Friday night football game.
But in the end, it was two teams going in different directions as a talented Seneca baseball team rolled past Easley 8-3.
“I was embarrassed by the way we played,” said EHS coach Gill Payne. “We practiced much better than that and we scrimmaged much better than that. We came out here and were throwing it all over the place. We can’t throw it in the infield in and out. We can’t throw strikes on the mound. If we do that all year, we are going to lose a bunch of games. We are not good enough not to make plays and not throw strikes. It doesn’t happen all year until opening night. You can call it stage freight. You can call it whatever. It can’t happen again. If it does, we’re going to have some real problems.”
For Seneca, you could not overlook the talented shortstop of William Cutshall. He’s already committed to play at Ole Miss and could even be drafted into the big leagues. His agent was even at the game. Cutshall showed some of the big-time ability in the game against Easley, hitting a bomb to dead center field.
“He (Cutshall) has been a Bobcat for three years now,” said Seneca Coach Adam Hosler. “He just continues to improve and get better. He’s one of our team captains and kind of leads by example. Obviously, he’s super talented, but he’s also a competitor. He had his first home run of the season tonight and that’s good to see. He’s definitely a special talent and a special person too. We’re happy to have him.”
Hosler talked to his team in the outfield after the game and then added, “We had some things we had to improve on based on our scrimmages. I feel like we improved a lot tonight.”
Continued Hosler, “Tyler Valley was on the mound and went five innings, and I think he struck out 10 batters. He did a great job competing out there. He did a great job competing out there. He got up to 90 (pitches). We wanted to build him up because he’s going to be one of our main starters. We had a lot of quality at-bats. We ended up seeing 196 pitches tonight. I could not be more proud of these guys. It was a great way to start the season.”
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