Published: May 06, 2008 03:41 pm            

Alto baseball team fueled by grid success

By Don Wallace

sports@jacksonvilleprogress.com

ALTO — They’re rested and ready.

The No. 6-state ranked Alto Yellowjackets won the District 21-A title with a 10-0 mark and earned a first round bye in the playoffs.

Alto will play the winner of the Lovelady at 7 p.m. in Lufkin at Morris Frank park in the first of a best two-of-three game series for the Class A area title. The second game will be played at the same location Saturday at 2 p.m. with the third game, if needed, also at the same field.

The Yellowjackets are feeding off the momentum of the football team which has won back-to-back state titles and not lost a game in several years.

The powerful baseball Yellowjackets averaged 11 runs per game in district.

“We’re just waiting to see who we play next. We really haven’t had that much down time. Our district ended late because we had some rainouts to make up. We’ve had another good year; we’re 18-2 and the team is playing well,” said veteran Alto baseball coach John Paul Dixon.

Dixon has been at Alto a total of 24 years, and his teams have made the playoffs 10 times in the last 19 years.

Last year Lovelady booted the Yellowjackets from the postseason with a tough decision in the area round.

“We just ran out of pitching last year against Lovelady. We won the first game and were doing pretty well; then we didn’t have enough pitching. This year we will probably play a two-out-three series, because we have more pitching,” Dixon said.

Top pitchers on the teams are lefty Clinton Dover with a 5-0 mark and 1.58 earned run average, while Tarlandus Mitchell is 6-0 with a 1.63 earned run average. Other pitchers include Colton Crisp and freshman Rhett Gresham.

Dixon is quick to admit that a key addition to the team is Gresham as catcher.

“Gresham is a freshman and doing a fine job. He is able to catch all pitchers well. He has made a big difference. Plus he is hitting .491 for the year,” Dixon said.

Other top hitters for the Yellowjackets include Mitchell, .567; Dover ,463; Jared Moore, .452 and Clayton Scott, .426.

Alto is blessed with good overall team speed. The same fleet feet which served them so well in football pay dividends on the baseball diamond.

“We have a really good defense. Our outfield of Michael Parker, Scott and Lance Low is pretty fast. We don’t have many hits drop in. Garrett Curtis at third is another steady defender,” Dixon said.

Dixon said the carryover of confidence from the football field has translated well to baseball this season.

“We know that their are many good teams around. But we are confident about what we can do. We had good hitting, several good pitchers and a steady defense. We lost to Lovelady last year and they went on to state. We’d like to be the one advancing this year,” Dixon said.

Alto last made the state tournament in 1997, losing in the finals held in Austin.

        

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