How good would the baseball team be if Troy had only one high school?
Published 10:48 pm Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Just two miles separate Butch Austin Field and Hogan’s Hole.
The teams that play on those diamonds, the Pike Liberal Arts and Charles Henderson Trojans, are each ranked near the top of their respective divisions.
Charles Henderson is the top-ranked team in AHSAA 4A and Pike is second in AISA.
Due to the AHSAA regulations, the two teams will never play one another. But nothing can keep us from having a little fun.
Both teams are very good on their own, but one can help but wonder how good the team would be if the city of Troy had only one high school.
To start off with, the team would possess two of the most sought after players in the state in Chandler Avant and Chase Smartt.
The infielders could consist of a mix Pike’s Myles Loving, Rush Hixon, Connor Vowell and Avant and Charles Henderson’s Jason Fleming, Reilly Fox, Hunter Baggett and Xavius Burden.
Imagine an outfield of Brian Adams, John Johnson and Austin Ingram, and a pitching rotation of John Michael Stephens, Cole Wilson, Avant, Vowell and Hixon.
Even the bench players would be better than most team’s starters. Players such as Connor Wood, Blake Cumbie, Burden, Nick Lewis and others could step in at any time to give others a day off or provide a needed spark on a down day.
The possibilities don’t stop with the players.
A Butch Austin-Derek Irons led coaching staff would be, without a doubt, the best in the state of Alabama.
The group of youngsters played recreation ball with each other until it came time to move to junior varsity competition. The won titles together in the past, so I would bet they could do it now.
While each team has won state titles on their own in recent seasons, Pike Lib in 2012 and Charles Henderson in 2013, if the two schools were one, the championship banners would have probably completely covered the outfield wall of Frazier-Austin Field.