A new baseball coach, Travis Free, has been named for the Oak Ridge Wildcats.
Oak Ridge High School announced the new coach this week.
Besides coaching, Free will be an eighth-grade math teacher at Robertsville Middle School. [Read more…]
Baseball: Regular season ends this week, district tournament begins
Oak Ridge senior pitcher Seth Caldwell (0) is pictured above during a 9-1 win over Campbell County at Bobby Hopkins Park in Oak Ridge on Tuesday, April 24, 2018. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
Note: This story was updated at 8:05 p.m.
The regular baseball season ends this week, and the district tournament begins.
As of Tuesday, Oak Ridge was 15-11 overall and 7-6 in District 3-AAA.
In their last district game, at home on Tuesday, the Wildcats beat Campbell County 9-1. They were scheduled to play their final regular-season district game, a rescheduled game, at Campbell County this afternoon (Sunday, April 29).
Oak Ridge will play a a non-district game at Walker Valley in Cleveland on Monday and a throwback game using wooden bats at Farragut on Tuesday.
The district tournament starts on Thursday, and games will be hosted by the top two seeds, which could be Karns and either Halls or Powell. [Read more…]
Oak Ridge varsity, junior varsity baseball schedules for 2018
You can see the 2018 Oak Ridge varsity and junior varsity baseball schedules here. [Read more…]
MassLive.com: Steen still recovering, but determined to return to baseball
Boston Red Sox minor league player Kevin Steen, a right-handed pitcher who was drafted out of Oak Ridge in the ninth round of the Major League Baseball draft in 2014, is still recovering after being critically injured in a car crash in Florida in April, but he is determined to return to baseball, according to a news and information site in Massachusetts.
MassLive.com reported that Steen spent about three months recovering at Lee Memorial Hospital in southwest Florida and has undergone seven surgeries. Steen said he hopes to pitch again in mid-to-late 2018, but he doesn’t want to rush anything and “it is going to take some time,” the website said. (You can read the story here.)
The crash in Florida was reported on April 26. News reports at the time said another car veered over a median and struck the sport utility vehicle that Steen was driving. The striking vehicle went airborne before crashing into Steen’s SUV. That striking vehicle caught fire, and the driver died on the scene.
A YouCaring page set up for donations for medical expenses for Steen said he suffered severe lower body injuries and had surgeries on his hip and both knees before starting rehabilitation. [Read more…]
After loss to Halls, Oak Ridge plays Clinton in elimination game today
Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today
KARNS—After an 8-0 loss to Halls on Sunday, Oak Ridge will play in a district tournament elimination game today (Monday, May 8).
The season will end for the loser. The winner will move on to play the loser of the Halls-Karns game in the District 3-AAA baseball tournament on Tuesday. The Halls-Karns game is scheduled to start at 8 p.m. today at Karns High School.
The Oak Ridge-Clinton game is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. today at Karns High School.
Oak Ridge (13-15) beat Clinton (13-21) twice during the regular season. The first was an 8-0 win at home on Monday, April 17, and the second was a 5-1 victory at Clinton two days later, on Wednesday, April 19.
Before the Sunday loss to Halls (17-11), the Wildcats had lost once to the Red Devils during the regular season, a 7-2 defeat on Thursday, April 20. [Read more…]
Baseball photos: Oak Ridge-Halls in district tournament
Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today
KARNS—After an 8-0 loss to Halls on Sunday, Oak Ridge will play in a district tournament elimination game today (Monday, May 8).
The season will end for the loser. The winner will move on to play the loser of the Halls-Karns game in the District 3-AAA baseball tournament on Tuesday.
The Oak Ridge-Clinton game is scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. today at Karns High School.
Here are photos from the Sunday night Oak Ridge-Halls game by John Huotari of Oak Ridge Today. [Read more…]
Wildcats in district tournaments today in baseball, softball, tennis
The Oak Ridge Wildcats are playing in district tournaments today (Monday, May 8) in baseball, softball, and tennis.
Semifinals of the district tennis tournament begin at 4 p.m. today at Tyson Park in Knoxville. Oak Ridge High School team members playing today are Archer Marlow (singles), Ethan and Andrew Brady (doubles), Audrey Chrisman and Jasleen Narula (doubles), and Jimin Lee (singles).
The baseball game starts at 5:30 p.m. today at Karns. Oak Ridge will play Clinton in a District 3-AAA baseball tournament elimination game. The season ends for the loser. The winner will play the loser of a Karns-Halls game on Tuesday. Oak Ridge lost to Halls 8-0 in its first-round district tournament game at Karns on Sunday. [Read more…]
Baseball: Wildcats win 3 of last 5 district games, play Clinton Monday
Oak Ridge junior catcher Jacob Ownby (44) is pictured above during a 6-4 loss to Powell at Bobby Hopkins Park on Friday, March 31, 2017. (Photo by John Huotari/Oak Ridge Today)
The Oak Ridge Wildcats have won three of their last five district baseball games. They have three more district games this week, including one at home today (Monday, April 17) against Clinton and then another at Clinton on Tuesday.
The Wildcats (9-10, 3-4 District 3-AAA) will then travel to Halls on Thursday.
Today’s varsity game against Clinton (10-15, 1-6) is scheduled to start at 5 p.m. at Bobby Hopkins Park. The junior varsity game is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.
Here are summaries of recent district games: [Read more…]
Oak Ridge Baseball Complex could be re-named in honor of volunteer
The Oak Ridge Baseball Complex on Wilberforce Avenue could be re-named the Joe Mason Baseball Complex in honor of long-time community volunteer Joe Mason.
The Oak Ridge City Council will consider the re-naming during its Monday night meeting.
Oak Ridge Recreation and Parks Director Jonathan Hetrick said administrators at Oak Ridge Schools and the Baseball Boosters Association have requested the re-naming.
“Mr. Mason is a 1958 graduate of Oak Ridge High School, where he lettered in baseball and football,” Hetrick said. “He has continued to support high school athletics in Oak Ridge, especially baseball, throughout his life. He spent many years coaching youth baseball in Oak Ridge. For over 30 years, he has led the maintenance efforts of the home field for the high school baseball team, Bobby Hopkins Field, along with the other ballfields at the complex. [Read more…]
Wildcats open baseball season at home today
The 2017 Oak Ridge Wildcats baseball team is pictured above. (Photo courtesy ORHS Baseball)
The Oak Ridge Wildcats open the regular baseball season at home today (Monday, March 13) against Gatlinburg Pittman. The game has been moved up one hour to 4:30 p.m. to try to avoid incoming rain.
The Oak Ridge Baseball Complex Fields are off Wilberforce Avenue, which is off East Tulsa Road and behind the Hobby Lobby shopping center in central Oak Ridge.
See the varsity season schedule below: [Read more…]
Baseball: Admirals rout Morristown East to reach state tournament
Farragut High School’s baseball team punched its ticket to the Class AAA state tournament with a 13-0 victory over Morristown East in a sectional game at John Heatherly Field at the Ballpark in Farragut.
The Admirals, who posted a runner-up finish in Murfreesboro in 2015, will begin their quest for a 10th state title Tuesday.
Farragut (37-6) had endured some offensive struggles during the postseason but broke out in a big way against Powell in the Region 2-AAA championship game in Farragut on Wednesday night. The Admirals scored five runs in their last at-bat against the Panthers and came off the field with a 6-5 victory after erasing an early five-run deficit.
Farragut wasted little time Friday picking up where it left off Wednesday. The Admirals took advantage of a pair of errors by the Hurricanes in the bottom of the first and scored six runs on just three hits in the bottom of the first inning. [Read more…]
Updated: Oak Ridge falls in no-hitter by Powell’s Alford, then loses to Gibbs
Powell pitcher Peyton Alford strikes out the side in the top of the first inning during a 3-0 no-hitter win over Oak Ridge in the District 3-AAA tournament opener at Gibbs on Friday, May 6, 2016.
Note: This story was updated at 10 p.m. May 21.
GIBBS—Oak Ridge baseball head coach Mark Garrison had to give credit where credit was due.
The Wildcats fell victim to a dominating pitching performance by Powell’s Peyton Alford, who struck out 14 Oak Ridge batters and finished the game with a no-hitter in the Panthers’ 3-0 victory on Friday.
“He’s always good and I think that he was extra good today,” Garrison said. “He had a lot of days of rest, about five or six days. We did everything we could do. (Oak Ridge senior) Spencer Wilson did a great job even though he scattered 10 hits. We played great defense, and he kept us in the game. That’s what Spencer does. We just didn’t have an answer for Alford. He was very, very good.”
It was the District 3-AAA tournament opener, played at Gibbs High School.
Aside from an error, the Wildcats did in fact play solid defense and the pitching of Wilson—who recently tied the school’s record for most wins in a season—prevented Powell from taking a substantial lead. [Read more…]
