the West Laurens Raiders held their annual baseball awards banquet Tuesday
night.
The team also was recognized for setting five new team records: most
assists in a season (241), most put-outs (617), 21 wins, total number of
innings pitched and six saves in a season.
Coaches Mike Thompson and Josh Crawford opened the award
presentations by recognizing junior varsity players coming off a 9-1 season.
Cam Smith received the Offensive Award, Jake Browning the Defensive
Award, and Tyler Green the Coach’s Award.
Head coach Brian Brown then gave a recap of the season and presented
varsity awards.
“The success from this season came from hard work and dedication
throughout practices,” Brown said. “This team won eight times in its last at
bat.”
Brown recognized the team’s four seniors: Davey Hartley, Thor Pate,
Cody Woodard and A.J. Wright, who finished their varsity careers with a 60-
25 record. Brown was excited about the coming years with the number of
players returning.
Eason Spivey received the Offensive Award and Tate King got the Mr.
Clutch Award. Most Improved went to Vaughan Murkerson and Dylan Gay.
Will Thomas was named Best Defensive Player and the Raider Award was
handed to Davey Hartley.
Ross Miles received the Coach’s Award and Wright got the Top Pitcher
Award and the prestigious MVP.
All-Region 3-AAA awards were handed out, with nine Raiders being
recognized. King, Spivey, Wright, Thomas and Miles were named to the first
team, with Rodney O’Neal and Dylan Gay being named second-team all
region. Hartley and Murkerson are named honorable mention.