KMHS baseball hopes to make another BSC championship run

Kings Mountain High’s baseball team has several returning starters from last year’s Big South Conference championship team and they hope to add another trophy to their collection.

Veteran Coach Brad Melton put the Mountaineers through a couple of scrimmage games Saturday at Lancaster Field and they will begin their regular season February 27 at East Rutherford. Their first three games will be on the road as they go to Enka on March 3 and Cherryville on March 7.

The Mountaineers will host Blacksburg in their first home game on March 8 and will entertain the Ashbrook Green Wave in their first Big South game on March 14. Melton played all of his players in the two scrimmage games against Chase Saturday at Lancaster Field and saw a lot of promise. All of the returning starters and newcomers played well.

The Mountaineers return seven seniors, including last year’s Big South Conference Player of the Year Zane Brockman who was undefeated (8-0) on the mound and had his usual hot bat hitting well over the .300 clip.

Centerfielder Jacob Hamrick, a two-time All-Conference standout, also returns. Wyatt Davis, who also had a great year on the mound and led the team in innings pitched and strikeouts, also has looked good in early drills.

Catcher Cole Irby, left fielder Lucas Saldo and first baseman-DH Hunter Ellis also were heavy hitters and plan to continue their success this spring. Colton Mayse, Brayden Patrick and Ty Toney also return.

“Pitching should be our strength,” Melton says. “We hope to be better overall. I feel really positive about the offense. We only lost three seniors. We’ll miss them but we have a good senior class.”

The Mountaineers finished 12-2 in the conference and 18-6 overall last year. Their BSC championship was Kings Mountain’s first since 2009.

“We should be competitive in the Big South,” Melton said. “We should have as good a shot as anybody.”

Melton predicted North Gaston, which has two good pitchers, and Crest to be solid contenders. Stuart Cramer will also be dangerous as the Storm has a pitcher that throws the ball 96 mph.

“South Point’s always good but they lost a lot of players,” he said.” I think we’ll see the same teams at the top of the conference. We’re just glad that we’re going to be one of them.”

Melton begins his fifth year as head coach of the Mountaineers and they’ve been first, second or third every year. They went 4-1 in the shortened COVID year when they would have been one of the favorites to win the conference.

Melton will again be assisted by John Gamble and Wil Sellers.

“We need to get a lot of work in,” he said. “This week’s supposed to be nice and we can get outside and get a lot done. We hope the good weather continues.”