Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks ready for start of '08 season
By Shaun T. Cox/staff • stcox@newsleader.com • May 13, 2008
Can't get enough local baseball? The Rockingham County Baseball League opens its season on Saturday, with the Stuarts Draft Diamondbacks representing Augusta County. The Diamondbacks' roster boasts several current and former area high school ballplayers taking the field for Draft in Saturday's season opener against the Bridgewater Reds at 7 p.m. at the Diamond Club.
Draft has 12 returning players in addition to seven newcomers, and is looking to rebound from a sub-.500 season which saw the team swept out of the first round of the RCBL playoffs.
The Diamondbacks return all three of their main starters from last season, but it's still up in the air as to where each will pitch in the rotation, and who the relievers will be on what team owner and manager Tinker Kiser said is the strongest staff the team's had in its four years of existence.
"We have a lot of pitching, and we've picked up some new players, so I'm going to let them get out on the hill and compete," Kiser said. "We have our three main starters from last year, Seth Berry, Randall Stevens and Brandon Zollman. And we have Michale Moles, who was a spot starter last year."
Kiser listed nine pitchers in all, and said some of them likely won't even see the mound.
"We really have a lot of talent on the pitching staff," he said, "and some guys I might not even use because they can play other positions in the field as well."
Kiser said he also has a strong defense to back up the deep pitching staff.
"We're looking pretty good defensively," he said, "and we're solid up the middle."
Kiser said the Diamondbacks will look to play small ball in the wooden bat league, and try to take advantage of the team's speed.
"Zollman has a lot of speed and he's been our leadoff hitter the last couple of years," Kiser said. "He's probably a .330 average hitter, and he knows how to get on base and how to steal bases. And (Wes) Dimitt swings a big bat. (Ryan) Cooper is a .300-plus hitter in the league since he's been in it for four years, and he hits with some power.
"If we could hit for power we would, but we'll be using our speed to get runners in scoring position, and get any kind of a hit to get them home," he continued. "Dimitt will give us some added power ... and he had a successful year at Bluefield College."
The Diamondbacks also have one of the fastest athletes in the area in Robert E. Lee track standout Rajah Jenkins.
"Rajah gets on base a lot and steals a lot of bases," Kiser said. "He had a good year for us last year. We didn't think we'd use him as much as we did, but he played every game he showed up at and he did a good job for us."
Stuarts Draft seniors Cameron Cook and Zachary Marion — who both signed with Bluefield College recently — are on the team this year, as well as Draft grads Cooper and Dimitt. Wilson Memorial grads Randall Stevens and Ryan McClamroch give the roster two other players with Augusta County ties.
Kiser said the team's biggest need is depth on the bench.
"That's probably or biggest weakness, but if the guys that are playing show up every week, we'll have a strong team," he said. "Our depth is probably not as good as it should be."
Overall, Kiser expects big things this year.
"Pitching is definitely going to be our biggest strength," he said. "We'll be solid defensively, and we'll probably have as good a hitting team as we've ever had. We could use a little bit more power, but we have decent power. With the wood bat league, even the best teams only hit 12 or 15 home runs. I feel like we have a chance at making a bid for the title."
