Marshall County Post

Sports Marshall County Post April 18, 2024 11A Champs’ walk-off mars Gentry’s gem By CHRIS SIERS csiers@ bedfordcountypost.com B ELL BUCKLE — For- rest’s Game 1 on Monday night against the Cascade Champions was about a good of a game as either team could have asked for. The Rockets did ev- erything but take home a win, as Cascade spoiled a dandy of an outing by Preston Gentry and took the walk-o ff in the 4-3 District 9-AA victory. For four innings, fans were delighted to a qual- ity pitcher’s duel between Gentry and Cascade starter Walker Craig. The pair combined for four scoreless innings until the Rockets broke the stalemate in the top of the fi fth inning. Gentry helped his own cause when he ground out to fi rst, allow- ing Austin Dillon to score the fi rst run of the game. Tyler Baxter padded the Rocket lead with a RBI double to deep cen- ter fi eld, scoring Brennan Mealer for the 2-0 For- rest lead. Cascade evened the score with a two-spot in the bottom of the sixth, setting the stage for the dramatic seventh inning. In the fi nal inning, Carter Walk drew a bas- es-loaded walk to put the Rockets up 3-2, but the drama didn’t end in the top of the frame. After a hit batter, Cas- cade’s Logan Green con- nected on a line drive to center fi eld, scoring two runs for the Champion walk-o ff . Cascade starter Walk- er Craig went six innings of two-run baseball, giv- ing up fi ve hits and strik- ing out fi ve along the way. Gentry went six in- nings, giving up two un- earned runs on seven hits with 12 punch outs to his credit. Tyler Baxter was had the hot stick at the plate, going 3-for-4 with a dou- ble and a RBI. Game 2 was played on Tuesday night in Cha- pel Hill, however, results were unavailable by press time. Forrest 000 020 1 — 3 6 3 Cascade 000 002 2 — 4 9 2 Forrest: Brennan Mealer 1-for-3, Tyler Baxter 3-for-4, Kason Fuller 1-for-4, Luke Allen 1-for-2. WP: Crosslin LP: Fuller Preston Gentry pitched an absolute gem for the Rockets against Cascade, giving up just two unearned runs on seven hits with 12 strikeouts. Carter Walk lays down a sacrifice bunt to move Kason Fuller to second base in the top of the second inning. –Post Photos by Chris Siers Forrest hires Wild to lead Lady Rockets By CHRIS SIERS csiers@ bedfordcountypost.com F or John Wild, the lure of coming home to Forrest has always been a hope of his, but the timing just could never work itself out. That all changed this spring as Wild has been hired to lead the Forrest Lady Rocket basketball program. “I’m excited about it. I’ve lived here for 15 years and my kids went to school here. My grandkids will go to school here and my wife was born and raised here. There has always been a part of me that has thought from time- to-time it would be neat to coach here. This time, when it came open, the timing was just right,” he said. While he’s spent the past year at Santa Fe and coached throughout the mid-state, Chapel Hill has been home for Wild for a long time and the chance to coach in his hometown was a perfect way to cap his coaching career. “I’ve formed a lot of close relationships with people in this community over the last 15 years and made some really good friends. I’m just excited about it. It’s a good way for me to fi nish my career in what I call my hometown,” he said. While coaches always have certain staples they put within their pro- grams, Wild is a fi rm believer of molding his team’s identity around the talent on the court. “The way you play is predicated on your players, and that’s go- ing to change from year- to-year. My Philosophy would be, o ff ensively, we’re going to be able to pass and catch the ball very well and try to limit our turnovers and be fundamentally solid. Defensively, we’ve al- ways primarily played man-to-man and try to eliminate penetration. To fi nish that o ff , I think the most important thing is rebounding. Defensive- ly, trying to win the re- bounding battle to limit second shots,” he said. After a rough 2023- 2024 campaign, Wild is tasked with rebuilding the winning Lady Rocket culture and among the fi rst steps in doing that is laying the foundation for the program. “I think the fi rst thing we have to do, before we even get on the fl oor, we have to talk about all the intangible things we have to do right. We’ve got to be accountable, we’ve got to develop a work ethic, we’ve got to be great teammates—all those little things. We have to do the little things right to try and develop our core before we can worry about what we’re going to do on the fl oor,” he said. “Building that culture on how hard we practice, how we care about each other and what kind of teammates we are, all those things have to be done fi rst before we can think about trying to win basketball games. Because I think if we lay that foundation on good, solid culture, I think the winning will somewhat take care of itself.” Having been named the Lady Rocket coach in the spring means Wild gets a full summer with the team and he plans to hit the ground running to prepare for his fi rst season at the helm with Forrest. “We’ll start with some open gyms and then we’ll go to tryouts and pick our team. Then we’ll go to summer practices, summer camps and all that’s on a calendar so far. That’s kind of how we’ll fl ow this summer. July, some of these kids play travel ball, but the ones that don’t, we’ll get in the gym and get some shots up. When school starts, we’ll start our fall conditioning, weightlifting, open gyms, three-man work and go from there,” he said. John Wild has been named the head coach for the Forrest Lady Rockets. –Post Photo by Chris Siers