Patrick Henry baseball team exceeding Coach Gibson's expectations
Patriots led by returning starters Scoot Mizzell, Rylin Brunson, Keagan Lee, Jacob Corley
Estill – Brody Gibson is in his first season as the baseball head coach at Patrick Henry Academy. All things considered, he is happy with how the season has gone to date.
The Patriots were 7-5 on the season with a 2-1 record in Region 4-AAA prior to spring break.
“I feel like we've played above expectations,” Gibson said. “The majority of our guys had none or very little varsity baseball experience to start this season. We have a couple of eighth-graders and one freshman who have stepped up and competed. The guys have shown their inexperience at times, but other times we make high level plays and competed with some very talented teams.
“Our main goal is to finish this season playing with more consistency and make the playoffs.”
PHA returned just four starters from last year’s 9-11 team in junior Scoot Mizzell, senior Rylin Brunson, senior Keagan Lee and senior Jacob Corley. Those four occupy the first four spots in the batting order.
Brunson is the leadoff hitter and catches and plays shortstop. Mizell is the primary shortstop and bats second, Lee is in the 3 hole and plays the outfield, while Corley is also an outfielder hitting cleanup.
Batting fifth is freshman first baseman Josh Evans followed by eighth-grade third baseman Caleb Corley. Junior outfielder Andrew Haddock bats seventh, junior catcher Devin Austin bats eighth, and junior second baseman Wylder Vaughn flips the order.
Brunson was leading the team in hitting with a .410 batting average and 18 runs scored. He had three doubles, a triple and a home run. Lee was batting .364 with 13 runs, while Jacob Corley was hitting .333 witih 16 runs. Mizzell was leading in runs batted in with 12 while batting .235.
Brunson had 12 stolen bases, Jacob Corley 11 and Lee 10.
Evans was batting .280, and Haddock was hitting .211.
Brunson, Mizzell and Austin were doing most of the pitching. Brunson had a 2-0 win-loss record and a 2.14 earned run average in 19 2/3 innings. Mizzell was 3-1 with a save and a 0.40 ERA in 17 1/3 innings and Austin had a 1-1 record and a save with a 4.20 ERA in 11 2/3 innings.
Patrick Henry plays in a 3-team region along with Colleton Prep Academy and Hilton Head Prep. The Patriots won both of their games against Colleton Prep by scores of 9-8 and 9-7. They lost to Hilton Head Prep, which is 18-1 and 3-0, by an 8-2 count.
