Wildcats looking to build on strong finish to last season

Despite finishing 3-12 in his first season as head baseball coach at Kemper County high School, Di­cenzo Miller said he loved the way his team grew at the end of the season. That growth has him ex­pecting good things out of his Wildcats in 2022, de­spite the fact they play in one of the toughest dis­tricts in MHSAA Class 2A.

“Every last one of them have won a state champi­onship,” Miller said of league foes Eupora, East Webster, Nanih Waiya and Choctaw County. “But, we look at it as a great oppor­tunity,’ he said. “We are just going to get in there and play our best.”

He said the overall team defense is coming along for his club, and a lot fo that has to do with the ex­perience his team got last year.

He said on the pitching side of the game this year that his team’s philosophy will be simple. “We just have to throw strikes,” he said. “If we get the strike­outs, fine, but we have to keep the ball in play and let the other guys help us out.”

Going into the regular season, which officially started Tuesday when the Wildcats paid a visit to Kemper Academy, Miller said he had a pretty good idea who was going to play where, but noted that things were still open to change.

E.J. Jackson was slated to start at first base, with Kalab Ball at second, Jun­ior Miller at shortstop and Kenyon Jones at third base.

The outfield from left to right is made up of Kaleb Jackson, Aaron Steele, and Izaiah Bourrage. Jakylan Bourrage is expected to see some action at DH, while Jay Russell will han­dle the catching.

Miller said he had five to six guys would see action on the varsity level, with another half dozen who would pitch on the junior varsity level.

‘We want to have realistic goals,” Coach Miller said. ‘We would like to win at least 10 games and then go from there.”

The Wildcats jump right into district play next week when they host Eupora on March 8 and then visit the Eagles on March 11.

At this point KCHS plans to play its home games in Scooba at the community field across from the EMCC baseball field.