by Steve Dunford

The Thompsonville Tigers saluted their three seniors last Tuesday in a GEC conference game to the Gallatin County Hawks at the First Baptist Church pavilion and field.

Tiger assistant coach Chris Raubach has this to say about each one. His comments will be in italics.

1B Jared Payne is also having a great season at the plate. He is hitting between .350-.400

I have not been able to watch the Tigers on the diamond this year, but I have watched these kids play on the hardwood a lot over the years.

Payne is one of those individuals that will turn the tide for the future of Tiger athletics.

His Sophomore year he played on an 0-26 team in basketball that played hard and battled.

He was the center stone of two very young teams his junior and senior year on the hardwood.

This is only the second year that Thompsonville has fielded a stand alone baseball team in a long time. Galatia ended the over a decade long co-op. He was one of the original pieces that in the future will be looked back on getting the program a start, as well as the good things to come for T’ville basketball.

Austin Lunde is our center fielder and has also pitched some for us.   

Lunde did not play basketball this year, but I watched him give Pete Gordon some solid minutes off the bench his junior year.

In baseball, he had some good range in the OF and had a plus arm,  Like I said I did not see them yet this year but with the pitch count coming into play this year, he was what every team needs, an innings eater.

The last is LF Noah Summers, who made an appearance on the mound.

Every program needs a Noah Summers in it.  He scratched and clawed for each second or half inning he gets on the field.

He had the chance to make a couple starts in basketball this year.  He is a competitor. That Fire in the belly he has is what every program needs someone to have.

As far as the program this year, they had several games washed out.  They also had to push back some games during spring break because they did not have enough arms to go around because of the pitch count.

The pitch count is a great thing, too many kids having Tommy John at an early age.

The Tigers have been led by P-INF, sophomore Reed Raubach.  He has flirted with the .500 mark at the plate all year, and picked up a win on the mound against one of the top 1A programs in Southern Illinois, the Crab Orchard Trojans.

One of the season highlights according to Coach Raubach, was a grand slam by 3B Tyler Jones against Galatia.

The Tigers will be at home at least one more time this year as they host Joppa in a first round regional game.

Thompsonville has not won a regional in any boys sport,  Whether it be on the diamond or hardwood, that could change when this group of underclassmen, who are the same cast of characters in both sports , become upperclassmen.