By Gene Schallenberg
Staff Reporter
HUNTSVILLE — The New Waverly baseball team will be starting their games a little later than the Bulldogs are used to now that they have lights at their field. But they can hardly wait.
“It doesn’t matter what sport you’re playing, whether it’s football or anything else, there’s just something about playing under the lights. It gets your adrenaline pumping and juices you up,” New Waverly senior center fielder Eli Amador said following practice Monday.
The Bulldogs will have a special presentation shortly before their first night game and home opener against Corrigan-Camden today, which is set to begin at 7 p.m.
“All of the former New Waverly baseball players in attendance will be invited to come on the field,” New Waverly head coach Tommy Bohannon said. “I think there’s going to be a ribbon-cutting ceremony and some Walker County dignitaries will be on hand. It’s a big deal for us and it’s big for Walker County.”
In season’s past, the Bulldogs have had to play their home games at 4 p.m. or earlier because of not having lights. Often games had to be called prematurely due to darkness.
“It’s good because games can now end when they’re supposed to,” Amador said.
The Bulldogs are also looking forward to having more support at night.
“More people can come to our games now,” Amador said. “A lot of people don’t usually get off from work until five o’clock or so. Now that we have lights, we should get a lot more people out here and cheer us on. We’ll give them a good game to watch.”
Today’s game features a pair of Bulldogs team, who are undefeated in District 21-2A. Last season, New Waverly defeated Corrigan-Camden 2-1 and 5-4 on its way to an undefeated district season and an outright district championship.
“It’ll be exciting to be on your own field and under your own lights, which is definitely something different for us,” Bohannon said. “It’s an exciting time around here for us. We’re facing Corrigan, who did a good job against us last year. We’re looking forward to it.
“Not only is it big for the community to have lights on the baseball field and for us to play under them at home, but it’s also a very big game in district and we know that. One thing we can’t lose sight of is the game. We’re happy to be a part of everything that’s going to be going on, but we want to be three-and-oh and we want Corrigan to be two-and-one.”
New Waverly comes into today’s district contest fresh off a championship at the Bryan Rudder tournament. Thanks to a one-hit performance off the mound from Clint Brown, the Bulldogs defeated Bryan Rudder 8-2 on Saturday in five innings in the title game.
“We had a strong effort from everybody over the weekend,” Bohannon said. “We’re looking to continue with how we’ve been playing. For a couple of years now, our boys team (football, basketball and baseball) haven’t lost in district. We sure don’t want to be the ones to break that streak.”
