First-year Kingstree baseball head coach Leonard Montgomery excited about future

            Kingstree – Leonard Montgomery had the opportunity to be the baseball head coach at Kingstree High School when it merged with C.E. Murray for the 2022-23 school year. He had been the head coach at C.E. Murray, leading the War Eagles to a school record 11 wins and the championship round of their district tournament in 2022, the school’s final year of existence.

           Montgomery chose not to take the job though -- at that time.

           “I purposely didn’t follow the team last year because of the merger,” Montgomery said. “I wanted the young men from C.E. Murray to gel with the young men from Kingstree, and I felt me being around would hinder the process.”

           James Price, the girls basketball coach and now the school’s athletic director, coached the baseball team last year and led the Blazers to a fourth-place finish in Region 8-AA. That was good enough to get them in the state playoffs, where they went 0-2 in their district tournament.

           Montgomery is now in charge of the program. Kingstree is off to a 1-4 start and is 1-3 in region play. All things considered Montgomery is happy with where the Blazers are.

           “I feel my team is young but coming together game by game,” he said. “I’m still looking for that true leader but I do feel the young men are buying in to what I’m trying to instill in them about the game of baseball. I was tasked with building a program, and I’m proud to say I’ve put together a coaching staff that can both relate to the young men as well as have knowledge about the game of baseball. This year will be a lot more teaching than coaching.”

           Montgomery and his staff are trying to put together the best lineup in the field as well as a solid batting order.

           “We play position-less baseball,” Montgomery said. “I need all of my young men to know how to play every position.”

           In a recent game, KHS had an infield of Mychael Wallace at first base, Chase McCrea at second, Ashton Woods at shortstop and Maleek Dukes at third with Mal’Aki Matthews catching. The outfield, from left field to right, consisted of Meltrin Segars, Zaveion McDuffie and Xavier Dukes.

           The batting order for that game had Xavier Dukes leading off followed by Segars and Tyleek Dukes, who pitched, batting third. Wallace hit cleanup followed by Maleek Dukes, McCrea, Woods, McDuffie and Matthews.

           The rest of the roster is made up of Ethan Carroway, Dontrell Epps, Paul McKnight, Michael Kelly, Caiden Pressley, Tre’Quan Collins, Lazarus Moyd, Zalyn McClam, Mark Picard, Makhi Shaw and Mason Holland.

           Montgomery said he has a lot of speed on the roster. It’s just a matter of the Blazers getting on base.

           “I fell our biggest strength is our speed on the bases,” he said. “I feel the more chances we are on base the more we can score. Every young man knows the importance of being aggressive on the bases.”

           Tyleek Dukes and Maleek Dukes, both right-handers, were key pitchers last season. Montgomery said he has some good arms in Woods, Kelly, freshman McCrea and eighth-graders Segars and Pickard, who is the only lefty.

           “Every game we’ve been in we’ve pitched good enough to win those games,” Motngomery said. “Errors are what's killing us. If I can control that I'll be alright.”

           Not only does Kingstree have a big varsity roster, it also has a junior varsity program this year. Montgomery said it is doing well, so he is obviously excited about the future.

           However, his focus now is seeing improvement in this team, getting it into the playoffs and having some success.

“It's OK to start off bad, it's how you finish,” Montgomery said. “You’ve got to look up to get up.”