Trojan baseball completes undefeated season

KING — First year head coach BJ Fulk led Chestnut Grove’s baseball team to the school’s 13th Foothills Middle School Conference Championship after the team finished second last year under current South Stokes’ coach Gary Pollard.

“My main goal was to make them better men,” said Fulk said. “I didn’t expect us to go 16-0. It’s an awesome accomplishment for the boys and I’m just a blessed coach! These boys are very talented and fun to coach, and anything I’ve asked them to do, they did it. That makes my job easier.”

Chestnut Grove batted .349 as a team with an on base percentage of .510. The Trojans hit 24 doubles, 0 triples, 11 homeruns, 154 RBIs, scored 196 runs, and drew 98 walks with 58 stolen bases.

Wyatt Spainhour led the Trojans at the plate with a .529 batting average and an on base percentage of .636. Garrett Shelton was second with a .529 average followed by Logan Bloodworth .444, Bentley Joyce .367, and Cole Morgan .333. Bloodworth led the team with a .643 on base percentage.

Joyce led the team with four homeruns and 25 RBIs and Bloodworth had two homeruns and 21 RBIs. Banks Fant led the team with 27 runs scored and 12 stolen bases, and Kiptyn Middleton with four doubles.

Joyce was the ace of the pitching staff throwing 23 innings and only giving up three earned runs all season. He was 3-0 with an ERA of .913 with 44 strikeouts, and an opponent batting average of .107.

Middleton pitched 20 innings finishing 1-0 with a save. He gave up three earned runs on the season with 27 strikeouts and an ERA of 1.05.

Fulk went against the grain this year and made a difficult decision of only put seventh and eighth graders on the roster with no sixth graders, including his own son.

“I just feel they are not ready for the big field,” noted Fulk. “If they are playing travel baseball, they are on the small field which is different size bases, and the pitcher’s mound is smaller. It makes it harder to get the timing down on hitting. Some think it’s a great idea, some hate the idea. Hopefully if we can keep winning everyone will like the idea.”

Chestnut Grove only loses six players off this year’s roster with a lot of good seventh graders returning with some solid sixth graders ready to get started.

Members of the team are Hunter Anderson, Logan Bloodworth, Luke Cecile, Justin Doby, Ayden Emlinger, Banks Fant, Tyler Flippen, Trenton Fraley, Isaac Jones, Bentley Joyce, Kiptyn Middleton, Cole Morgan, Jaxon Paitsel, Jeb Presnell, Grayson Rothrock, Noah Rogers, Garrett Shelton, Carson Silva, Wyatt Spainhour, head coach BJ Fulk, and assistant coaches Josh Shelton, Josh Tuttle and Mike Edwards.