Jerel Beaty
Staff Writer
This past week, The Devine Warhorse baseball program got in their first set of scrimmages against Medina Valley, Lytle, and Dilley. Do not ask about the score because Head Coach Heath Poppe never gave me any.
“We treat these scrimmages like just another practice,” said Poppe. “These scrimmages were set up to work on certain situations that put pressure on the players to execute both offensively and defensively.”
Too many times, coaches and teams try to “win” scrimmages and miss the opportunity to actually teach the game to young players. That is definitely not the case with Poppe and his assistant coaches.
“We put base runners on base with no outs to put massive pressure on the pitcher and the defense. This really helps the players bare down and compete at the highest level possible. Offensively, it’s about putting the ball in play with runners on base and working on the different ways to score runs.”
When I asked Coach Poppe how the team did in those scrimmages he simply replied, “We did some good things and there are things which we need to improve.”
This week, the Horses hosted McCollum (last night) before taking on Kennedy Friday to round out the scrimmage portion of the season.
Get your cushioned seat out and dust it off as Devine hosts its season opener against Canyon Lake at Warhorse Field on Monday, Feb. 19 at 7pm.
Best of luck to the Warhorses in 2024!