Fort Benning Bears assistant baseball coach Jesse Flegal said most players on the team had never seen a curveball before Thursday.
The curve ball came from Calvary pitcher McKenzie Stringfellow, who recorded 15 strikeouts as the Knights defeated the Bears 11-0. That’s one of the challenges plaguing the Bears early in the season, Flegal said—not knowing their opponent’s pitchers and what they have in their arsenal.
With the support of the Child, Youth and School Services, the Fort Benning team started this year and joined the new Dixie League in Columbus, which is composed of teams with players between the ages of 13 and 14, though Fort Benning has three players who are 12 years old and eligible for local league play.
Head coach Todd Svenson, who is currently unable to be with the team due to a family emergency, pushed the idea for an off-post baseball team.
Flegal said developing an on-post team would not be beneficial due to a lack of competition and interest in the age group.
“Playing off post was the only way they’d be able to get competitive play,” Flegal said. “Thus far it’s shown to be a very competitive league we are in.”
Jason Barnes, president of the Dixie League, said this is also the first year for the league, which branched off from the Babe Ruth Baseball League in Columbus.
“We wanted to see Dixie as a totally different brand of baseball,” Barnes said. “We approached Faith Middle School and they said they wanted to play. They’ve never been part of a league before and we’ve always tried to get them to play with us.”
This inaugural season for the Bears will reveal numerous other challenges, the biggest of which for Flegal may be worrying about players moving away from Fort Benning at any time with their families while facing teams with players who have played together for years.
Flegal described the process of forming the Fort Benning team as “putting a team together from scratch.” “A lot of the kids we have haven’t played since the fourth grade,” he said. “It’s helping them get back into the game and make them competitive for their high school tryouts.”
Thursday’s game showed a need for the Bears to improve on fundamentals and communication. Many ground balls in the infield didn’t lead to outs and Flegal stressed the importance of his team getting more batting practice.
“We can’t be afraid of getting hits,” he said. “We’ve got to get a couple of guys behind the plate and get them comfortable. They haven’t played together before, so they’re not used to each other yet. Once they get used to each other, we should see a marked improvement.”
Fort Benning also struggled when opposing runners reached base. Calvary appeared to steal bases at will with Fort Benning unable to do anything about it.
“That guy on first, the next pitch he’s on second and the next pitch he’s on third and ready to score,” Flegal said.
Despite the early struggles, Flegal remains optimistic about this season. The turning points, he said, should come after the Bears have played all their opponents once (there are 10 teams in the league and they play each team twice), and when Flegal gets players comfortable and in the right positions. Some players who have shown to be good outfielders don’t like to play outfield, he said.
“We’re trying to figure out where everybody fits,” he said. “It will get progressively easier and we’ll have some closer games and some wins.”
