Hornsby succeeds Assey as head coach of Gray baseball

By WORTHY EVANS

Contributing Writer

Gray Collegiate baseball lost a big part of its baseball success with the retirement last year of head coach Charlie Assey. Assey, who had coached the War Eagles since 2018, led the team to two Class 2A state championship series appearances in 2021 and 2022. He took the team to the upper state semifinals in his final season, falling to Strom Thurmond.

“Gray Collegiate has been a huge part of my life the last six years,” Assey said in a statement last year. “The baseball program is one of the top teams in the state. This has been the most difficult decision to make in my life. To hang up my hat forever from something that has been my entire life dream is tough. Please know that I will always be appreciative of this opportunity to be a War Eagle.”

Assey won a state title at Brookland-Cayce in 1998, and won four SCISA state championships, coaching at Orangeburg Prep, Mims Academy, Willington Academy, and Heathwood Hall.

In looking to fill Assey’s shoes, Gray Collegiate found a natural choice—longtime Assey assistant Matt Hornsby, whose son M.J. Hornsby stayed at Gray while his father went to rebuild the baseball program at Dreher.

“We had some really good years, and during that time we had some good players and good parents and a good program,” Hornsby said about his three years at Dreher, where he led the Blue Devils to two region championships in 2022 and 2023. “But it just killed me when I couldn’t see my son play. I was going to come back to Gray and stay until my son graduated, then when Coach Assey retired, I was fortunate enough to be at the right place at the right time.”

Gray lost six seniors from last year’s 30-7 team, including Blaine Redmond, the team’s No.1 pitcher and centerfielder. The War Eagles have a good core returning, Hornsby said.

Among those returning are Junior shortstop and pitcher M.J. Hornsby, junior second baseman/shortstop Garrett Blankenship, sophomore pitcher and catcher Riley Huggins.

“He’s our No.1 guy at pitcher and he’ll catch some but not just yet,” Hornsby said. “He plays outfield as well and is a really good player.”

Coach Hornsby said the infield is really strong with M.J. Hornsby and Blankenship sharing time at shortstop and second base, junior Cole Adams at third, and senior first baseman and pitcher Zeb Taylor coming back. Taylor hits in the cleanup spot.

“The infield has been our strongest part of the year so far,” Coach Hornsby said.

Junior J.P. Sweat is in centerfield and junior Kaleb Holmes in rightfield, and senior Judson Decell is in leftfield.

“J.P. is batting over .700 right now and kaleb has been batting around .600, a nice surprise for us.”

Competing in what Hornsby calls “the gauntlet” of the 8-team Region 4-4A, which include Brookland-Cayce, Gilbert, Airport, Aiken, South Aiken, Midland Valley, and North Augusta, will be a big challenge this year.

Fortunately for the War Eagles, Hornsby shares a great deal of baseball philosophy with his predecessor.

I just want to build basically on what we’ve established here. He’s got them on a good foundation,” Hornsby said. “Our offensive approaches are a little different, I’m a little more free-swinging and he’s a little more old school than I am. We’re still going to bunt and do all the things he said, but I don’t think I’ll take as many pitches as he did and don’t want to wait as much (for good pitches). We’ll be a little more aggressive on the bases, but our philosophies are very similar.”