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The Pike County Bulldogs will be opening a new baseball/softball complex this season and have a new head coach. 

With all of that new comes positivity, which head coach Daniel Phillips believes will be a big difference for his Bulldogs.

“We just have to encourage each other,” he said. “They’re so used to non-positivity I think, we just have to encourage each other and lift each other up. As long as we’re staying positive and not being negative we’ll be fine. If we’re negative all that does is bring us down.”

Phillips knows plenty about winning as he was a three-time All-State athlete at Highland Home before earning All-Conference honors at Huntingdon College. At Huntingdon, Phillips boasted a .365 bating average with 29 doubles, seven triples, 10 home runs, 87 RBIs, 143 runs and 35 stolen bases. 

Pike County is not just Phillips’ first head coaching gig, it’s his first coaching job out of college. Coming in to the program, he knew his team needed to hear plenty of the positivity he spoke about.
“We started with a lot of these guys having a hard time just understanding things like base running,” said Phillips. “I knew coming in that this program needed a change, a positive change, and I’m that guy to bring positivity to the team.

“I told them as long as we’re getting 1 percent better every day, that’s all we can do. We can’t worry about the past within a game. If you mess up in a game, that’s okay; worry about the next play.” 

Phillips points to his veterans as being the players that will need to guide the way this season.

“Michael Gabel and Felix Albritton are guys that have to be leaders,” Phillips said. “Gable is my catcher and sort of the quarterback of the team as a senior. Albritton is my shortstop and he’ll probably be our ace pitcher. I expect them to be leaders for this team and lead us to victories.” 

Pike County’s new baseball/softball complex, which will feature new fields, new dugouts, locker rooms, bull pens and a covered hitting facility, is expected to open after Spring Break. Phillips said the complex could be even bigger for the program than just simply having better, nicer facilities. 

“It’s going to be massive for the program,” Phillips emphasized. “It might attract players that haven’t seen Pike County as a ‘Baseball School’ in the past. So, maybe kids that would have gone to Ariton or Pike Lib in the past, it might draw those kids back in here.” 

Phillips said that while his team wants to do big things this season, they’re taking things one game at a time.

“Win this first game, that’s what we’re focusing on,” Phillips said of Pike County’s goals. “We want to take things one game at a time, so the goal right now is to win the first game. Don’t worry about three games ahead, just worry about what we have in front of us.”