Top Legion players

Just curious. After reading the Shelby paper's article and looking at the list of leaders a couple of underclassmen jumped out at me as I follow Charlotte HS baseball pretty closely on this board. Jackson Reisterer who plays for Post 262 and East Mecklenburg HS is in the top 10 in Batting Ave. and has hit 4 HRs so far this year. He wore out both Ashville and Hickory's pitching before Rutherfordton basically pitched around him and gave him very few good looks. Those are pretty impressive numbers for a rising Jr. (2012) who's only played 1 year of varsity baseball. My question is how many other young kids were out there this summer playing with from what I understand is mostly graduated seniors and college freshmen in Legion ball?

 

Chris Bruner pitched very good for Huntersville Post 321 as a "go-to-guy" out of the bullpen this year in Legion. Chris is a rising junior (2012) and was the ace of the North Meck Vikings JV team this year. Bruner will attend Hough High next year and looks to compete to be the ace of the staff.

 

ASU 86, I do NOT type officially for Cherryville Post 100, but here is some info based on watching who plays and looking at their roster.

There is not a guy from the class of 2012 on the Sr. roster this season. From my only 3 or so years living in the area and following the team, having a soph. on the Sr. team is the exception.

Some things that contribute to that here, (opinion) is that legion ball is very popular here. The players come out instead of doing the "travel ball" thing. Even if they don't start and/or play alot. That makes for alot of competition as you may guess. The starter knows that the guy behind him was a starter on his high school team and is working hard to get in the game.

The Jr. program here is supported not just by parents, but, at a smaller level, by the community. You know things like sponsorship, having the concession stand open, having a PA announcer, etc. It looks like they try to give the guys on the "Jr" team the same game day experience as the "Sr" team. Guys who just finished their Fresh or Soph year of HS around here know that they will probably be on the Jr. team. It appears to me that so many "try out" for the team, it becomes a numbers game. They are not mad about it. They take it serious and try to make their team a winner. They try to have an attitude that it is better to be playing alot on the "Jr" team, than being a reserve on the "Sr" team.

On the current roster, I count 9 players with 2 seasons of "Jr/B" ball. There are 6 with 1 season of "Jr" ball.

Guys who just finished their Jr. year of HS (class of 2011) do play tho. Depending on who is pitching, there could be 5 in the lineup. Usually there are 4. There are 3 guys that do relief pitching or get a "spot" start. Both catchers are class of 2011. Guys play several postions too, so you never know. Last season 2 of the regular starters had just finished 11th grade.

Players do not usually quit. They start on the Jr/B team, learn and develop then move up. If I counted correctly, there are 7 players on their "Sr" team that are in their 4th season in the program, Jr + Sr. I came out here after being in Charlotte for over 40 years, and things are different. I can see that it is easy to get spoiled if you are a fan of legion ball. Not just in Cherryville, but also Shelby, Caldwell, etc., in this area and I am just learning how much support also exist in places like Rowan Co., NC and Sumter, SC.

Sorry to be so long winded on this. I know you mentioned graduated seniors and college freshmen, but I just wanted you to know that in many programs around here at least, the player that just finished his "jr" year of HS is a very important player.

Just my opinions, but I think that you ask a good question. Hope some of the others will share names of guys that did good this season after just completing their soph year of HS.