Despite Being Winless The AJA Baseball Program Pointed In Right Direction

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Ehrhardt—Andrew Jackson Academy is fortunate to have a head baseball coach (Jason Mathys) who spent five seasons in the New York Yankees farm system, as a pitcher, after being a noted player on the Iowa State baseball team.

Coach Mathys and his family was brought to the area by the Navy a few years ago, where he served as a dentist. His family also maintains a hay farm in the area. He is also very proud of his junior daughter Elena Mathys who is now attending the Governor’s School in Hartsville. She is allowed to play on the Hartsville varsity softball team where she is the ace pitcher with a 3-2 record, an ERA of 1.46 and she has 39 K’s in 38.1 innings pitched.

Although the AJA baseball team is 0-11 coming into Spring break, Coach Mathy’s, is very confident about future success. “I over-see our “B” team, our junior varsity, and our varsity baseball teams and we have a lot of talent coming along in the 6^th though 8^th grades,” said Coach Mathys. “Our B team has only lost one game this season. The vast majority of our 7^th and 8^th graders are year-round baseball players. We have no seniors on the varsity team at all.”

Coach Mathys is a straight-forward tell it like is type coach. “We have been competitive in about half of our varsity games, and in the other half we have not played up to our potential,” said Coach Mathys. “This team has really improved over-all over the team from last year.”

One very bright spot for the Warriors has been the play and leadership of junior pitcher/third baseman Jack Walling. He leads the team in batting at .455 with six RBI’s and two doubles. He has also pitched 12 innings on the mound as well.

“Jack Walling has really improved a lot over last season and I think it has a lot to do with his confidence level,” said Coach Mathys. “He is the leader of this team and he is playing with a lot of confidence and I am played of his commitment towards improvement.”

The clean-up batter for the team is sophomore pitcher/utility player Walker Terry who is batting .292 with four RBI’s and two doubles. Junior center fielder Tim Williams bats in the second slot, and he is batting .260. Blayson Donehue starts at second base and he is currently batting .278 with two RBI’s and a double. Junior starting first baseman Landon Stanfield bats in the 5^th spot in the order.

Junior Russell Kinsey is the starting catcher. Freshman Elias Mathys is a freshman starting in left field. Sophomore Hall Sease rotates starting at shortstop and third base when he is not on the mound. The tall righty has six strike-outs in 11 innings on the mound. Thomas Hutto is a junior starting in right field.

Key reserves on the team include junior second baseman Hunter Zorn, sophomore designated hitter Colton Chavis, and sophomore first baseman Tanner Chassereau.

Coach Mathys is assisted on the varsity by Kip Terry. Auston Richard and Kevin Kinard team up to coach the junior varsity. John Paul Jones, recently named the head varsity football coach at AJA, works with the B team baseball program.