Garrett Manning (5) and Dawson Williams (7) give each other a high five after Manning scored a run during a game last season against Union Pines at McCoy Field in Laurinburg.
File Photo
LAURINBURG —The Scotland baseball program is coming off of a 2024 season where they experienced something they hadn’t experienced since 2014: a losing season. After an 8-3 start to the campaign, it seemed as though the Scots would be able to keep their streak of winning seasons alive. Unfortunately, Scotland’s hot start wore off as they would lose eight straight games to end the season and finish 8-11 (5-7 against conference opponents).
One big difference heading into 2025 is that the Scots won’t have eight seniors to replace heading into the season as they did a year ago. This year, Scotland lost fewer than half that amount to graduation as Garrett Sellers, Thomas Taylor and Grant McCoy are the only departed seniors from 2024.
Last year was a challenge for Head Coach Ricky Schattauer in the sense that some of his younger players such as Maddox Locklear, Kaden Hunsucker and Dawson Williams were being counted on to mature quickly and fill roles in a timely manner. They succeeded in doing so as Locklear was named team MVP, Williams was named offensive MVP and Hunsucker was named defensive MVP. With now a full year of experience under their belts, that should only help the Scots in 2025.
“We had to fill spots with inexperienced players, that’s a count to the numbers coming out to try out for baseball were down,” Schattauer said. “We had to play a lot of sophomores and let them mature faster in playing time rather than letting them play on JV and get the reps in that way.”
Even with fewer key players to replace this season, Schattauer will still need some contributions right away from new guys up from the JV team this season. Schattauer saw some key holes from last year that need to be addressed.
“Those guys that are coming up are going to have to help us out,” Schattauer said. “I know we only graduated three guys but those ones that are coming up are filling the voids of the ones that we lacked last year.”
Two players mentioned by Schattauer include juniors Bryson McCarter and Blain Callahan. Callahan is currently battling for a role as a first baseman while McCarter is making the transition from infielder on the JV team to filling a spot in the outfield on varsity.
“We had two senior outfielders last year that graduated so left field is a spot that is open,” Schattauer said. “Bryson was an infielder on JV last year, but he came to us early in the fall and told us that he could play the outfield for us.”
Schattauer sees his squad being scrappy on offense and good defensively with the help of his returning pitchers including Hunsucker, Dylan Tilson and Garrett Manning. He wants the Scots to keep the train moving on offense and to limit mistakes on defense.
“I think the grit is hopefully going to be our identity,” Schattauer said. “Our goal is going to be get on base, use our athleticism, use our bat control to move guys over and score runs. We have our pitchers coming back but we need to clean up some things, one error leaves them at first base, last year an error turned into a double or triple. The experience will help that, and our good pitching will give us some good defense.”
On an overall scale, Schattauer is optimistic about Scotland’s chances of rebounding from a disappointing fourth-place finish in the SAC standings a season ago. Pinecrest, who last had a losing season in 2015 and went 24-5 (11-1 in conference action) in 2024, will continue to be a powerhouse in Schattauer’s mind.
“We will hopefully finish toward the top,” Schattauer said. “Pinecrest will be Pinecrest, they graduated some of their stronger bats and arms, but they are a school that consistently has another player that fills right back in.”
Scotland will start their new season on the road Wednesday night at Western Harnett. Their home opener will be on Thursday night at 6 p.m. against Purnell Swett.