By Chris Parker
Diamond baseball has a new head coach in Sean Kelley this season. Kelley is in his first head coaching job after one season as an assistant coach.
He has eight returning varsity starters from last season’s six-win team to lean on this year.
A pair of seniors in Peyton Marbough (pitcher/outfielder) and Cody Neal (catcher) will be team leaders.
Kelley on Marbough: “Our players look up to him. He is a flexible player who provides consistent pitching and will do whatever the team needs.”
Kelley on Neal: “A hard worker and gritty player who will do whatever is asked of him. He’s a leader of the defense who will be given even more responsibility moving into his senior season.”
Marbough will be joined on the pitching staff by Austin Girdner (junior), Grady Bentley (sophomore) and Giancarlo Martinez (freshman).
Neal and Adam Brown (sophomore) will handle catching duties.
The rest of the lineup will feature versatile players.
“We will still be young, but we have a lot of well-rounded athletes that can play multiple positions on the baseball field,” Kelley said.
Diamond opens the regular season Mar. 15-18 at the Lamar Tiger Classic.