Barker pleased with first year as Pee Dee baseball head coach
Tristan Heckman selected to the SCISA All-State team
Mullins – Having lost five seniors from a 15-5 team that won a region title as well as having head coach Brian Davis step down, taking a step back – at least for one season – might have been the expectations of some for the Pee Dee Academy baseball team.
Not for the Golden Eagles though.
PDA finished with a 14-8-1 overall record and reached the championship round in its bracket in the SCISA AAA state playoffs in its first season with Danny Barker as head coach.
“We were pleased with the season,” Barker said. “The goal is always to play in the last series (the state championship series), but we did not quite get there this year. Not a lot was expected of us this year after losing a lot of players and me being a new coach. Everyone’s expectations were exceeded.”
Pee Dee was led by senior pitcher Tristan Heckman. He was selected to the SCISA All-State baseball team and was selected to play in the SCISA North-South All-Star Game along with fellow seniors Chandler James, Briggs Jones and Cohen Williamson.
The quartet was also selected to the All-Region 2 team as well along with freshman Neal Byrd.
Heckman, who has signed to play collegiately with Florence-Darlington Technical College, was the leader at the plate as well as on the mound. Offensively, Heckman led the Eagles with a .448 batting average. He led in hits with 26 with 11 of those going for extra bases – five doubles, four triples and two home runs. Heckman scored a team high 27 runs and had 15 runs batted in. He had an on-base percentage of .579 and 11 stolen bases.
As a pitcher, the right-hander posted a 5-2 win-loss record with a 0.79 earned run average in 35 2/3 innings pitched. He had 81 strikeouts while allowing just 14 hits and 16 walks.
James batted .413 and had a team high OBP of .594 and led in RBI with 21. He had two doubles, a triple, a homer, scored 13 runs and stole 12 bases.
Jones batted. 298, had a .394 OBP, scored 21 runs, stole 10 bases and had 17 RBI. Pitching-wise, Jones was 4-2 with a 2.79 ERA in 32/3 innings.
Williamson batted .327 and had an OBP of .411 with four doubles, 12 RBI and 13 runs.
Byrd batted .314 but had an OBP of .538. He had seven RBI and scored 12 runs. Byrd worked 21 2/3 innings on the mound, going 1-1 with a 2.58 ERA.
Despite losing three other seniors along with the four aforementioned seniors, Barker is excited about the future.
“One thing that we were pleased with this year was setting a foundation for the future,” he said. “We have a great group of young players that we are super excited about.”
