Franklin – A 14-4 loss to Franklin was not an ideal start to the season for Murphy baseball, but it’s a little more understandable once the run-up to the season is laid out.
“Right now, the thing we most need is game-type reps,” head coach Tyler Edwards said. “We’ve had one practice on the field as a team. Today’s only the second day we’ve all been out there at the same time.”
It may take some time for the Bulldogs to settle in on the field as well as to some new faces on the coaching staff. Edwards takes over for Adam Clonts, who stepped down in December after being promoted to assistant principal at Murphy Elementary School. Edwards, who coached Murphy Middle School’s baseball team last year, was the head baseball coach at Andrews High School from 2016-19.
Edwards said he has talked with Clonts since taking the job about key returning players. He’ll rely on assistant coaches i Darren Cook, Joey Curry, Erik Laney and Andrew Skogen to help as he continues to settle in.
“Thankfully, I work with most of these kids,” Edwards said. “I see them every single day, so I know the kids. I’m still learning some of them, how they play, what they’re good at, what their strengths and weaknesses are.
“Thankfully I’ve got four good assistant coaches, they’ve been around these kids, a lot of them. They give great input.”
On the field, six of Murphy’s 17 players were on the boys basketball team, whose season finished just six days before the Bulldogs’ season opener against Franklin. They didn’t practice with the team, but Edwards said a few threw on their own to stay loose. But as Murphy gets back into the baseball groove, Edwards thinks he knows what to expect from this group.
A dozen of the Bulldogs’ 17 players are seniors, though they still have to replace a lot of pieces from a team last year that split the Smoky Mountain Conference championship with Swain County. Five starters from last year graduated and another, shortstop Will Carringer, is out indefinitely after suffering a knee injury playing basketball.
Murphy brings back seniors Isaac Cole and Cole Laney on the mound, who both threw more than 30 innings last year. Cole was an All-Conference selection last year after also hitting .429 at the plate, while Laney was an honorable mention selection.
Also back is senior John Ledford, who was a lineup mainstay as a junior. Edwards sees senior Ty Laney and Isaiah Temple getting everyday roles this year as well, with Temple joining the pitching staff.
“Talking with Adam (Clonts) some and getting to watch some of his games last year, I think it’s going to be a very senior-led team,” Edwards said.
Franklin got on Murphy from the beginning, as they looked like a team still getting back into the swing of baseball. The Panthers tagged Cole for four runs in the bottom of the first inning on a bases-clearing triple by Jaxson Hursey and an RBI groundout by Reed Raby. They added two more on the second on RBI singles from Tyler Williams and Mars Hill commit Davis Anders.
The Bulldogs got all four of their runs in the third inning, getting back-to-back two-run doubles from Cole and Temple. The Panthers would add another in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI single by Caleb Cloer.
Murphy had a chance to cut into the deficit again with the bases loaded and only one out in the top of the fifth, but couldn’t capitalize. Franklin put the game into mercy rule territory with seven runs in the bottom of the inning, with Hursey’s two-run double extending the Panthers’ lead to 14-4.
“We need to clean up mental errors,” Edwards said. “We’re still finding spots for certain kids to go and moving kids around and finding the right spot for them. Thankfully we’ve got three non-conference games to figure that stuff out, which we will.
“We had a lot of good things. One through nine (in the lineup), I feel like everybody had a good at-bat at some point. We had no errors in the field, that’s a plus. We’ll take that.”
Edwards wants to use the next two non-conference games, which included against Polk County, Tenn., after press time Tuesday and against Franklin on Friday to get more reps, which he hopes pays off when Murphy opens conference play against Robbinsville on Monday.
“We just want game reps so we can be prepared for the conference and get some wins,” Edwards said.