DUMAS — When Dumas baseball coach Austin McKnight and the Bobcats sat down to sketch out goals for the year, advancing to the state tournament was one of the more lofty objectives.
After all, Dumas has never played in a state tournament and had only 11 players on the roster with a second-year head coach still attempting to instill his coaching style and beliefs into the program.
But with an 8-2 record in the 8-4A Conference and only Hamburg ahead in the standings, the Bobcats appear to at least have a legitimate chance of reaching its target.
“We said we wanted to win conference and then win a game in regionals to make it to state,” Dumas senior center fielder Rankin Teeter said. “As far as winning conference we need Hamburg to lose a game or two. But we still feel like we can win at regionals and get to the state tournament.”
Teeter is a big part of the offensive production for Dumas with a batting average close to the team average of .330 and an on base percentage of close to .500.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
McKnight said Teeter is a key instrument for run production as the Bobcats play pressure offense by putting the ball in play, advancing runners and playing small ball.
“We are aggressive at the plate,” McKnight said. “We work on that a lot. They really work on their approach at the plate. We play small ball when we have to but they have bought into just hitting the ball hard.”
When Teeter does set the table, Blake Downen, Matthew Miller and Ryan Miller are at the top of the order with Ryan Miller in the clean-up spot to force runs across the plate. But it’s what has happened at the bottom of the order with players like Jordan Jones and Trey Winchester that has provided the firepower to win close games.
Winchester is hitting .300 in the nine-hole with Jones batting .280 in seventh.
“He’s had some really good at bats,” McKnight said of Jones. “He has really improved since last year and has been putting the bat on the ball. That’s what you have to do. He’s not bouncing balls off the wall but he’s getting the ball through the infield and putting balls in the right places. I believe that’s part of our success is the bottom of our lineup making good things happen.”
Downen has been the go-to man on the mound as the senior hurler is 4-0 with two wins against Star City, one against DeWitt and one against Dollarway. He also picked up a save against Hamburg, the first time Dumas had tamed the Lions on the baseball diamond.
“He’s a senior pitcher and probably our ace,” McKnight said. “He fills his own cup. He works his tail off and we have really worked the mental game with him. He knows we want first-pitch strikes, get ahead and stay ahead.”
The Bobcats also depend on the arm of junior John Scott Shepherd who has two conference wins. Shepherd plays first base when not on the mound and bats in the middle of the lineup.
The Bobcats were scheduled to host Dollarway on Tuesday but wet field conditions pushed that game to 4 p.m. today. After that Dumas will play conference foe DeWitt on Thursday and step out of conference against Junction City on Friday.
McKnight said he is seeing improvements on a daily basis.
“When I first got here I had to work on the fundamentals of the game,” McKnight said. “We had to learn the game, how to have baseball smarts. Then I had to put in my system and it takes about three years. But we are in our second year and we are still working. We still have some things to learn but we are getting better every day.”