Because of the problems surrounding the 2020 High School spring sports season (and the absence of it), every team and coach have tried to find creative ways to honor their seniors while maintaining some social distancing as well.
Bethlehem baseball coach Roger Robinson did that on a Thursday evening at the high school with senior banners on display while students and parents either drove by or support them on their special night.
Robinson had been coaching the Eagles (I heard he may be coaching golf next season as well) for twelve seasons and has seen his share of ups and downs, but on that evening he ws very open about his feelings about a team and a group of guys that he felt could have made a major impression on the 19th District this season, but would not get their chance to do so.
He talked for nearly ten minutes about the seniors and how he would have loved to coach them this season after a great 2019 year. The Eagles had always been a factor in the District and Region standings for many years, but in 2013 and 2014 they made a major breakthrough winning 29 and 24-games while going to the Region Semi-finals and then making a trip to the Region Final in 2014 losing a tough 1-0 decision to Elizabethtown.
For the next two seasons, the Eagles were competitors winning 24 and 17-games while making Region appearances both seasons, but despite winning 20 and 12-games in 2017 and 2018, Bethlehem stumbled in the District Tourney.
Last season, Robinson and the Eagles looked like the glory days when they pounded out a 28-win season (their most wins since 2013) and made an impression on the 5th Region landscape when they beat LaRue County 10-0 in five innings before falling to eventual Region Champ Taylor County in the quarterfinals, 19-4 in four innings.
That 2019 team graduated eight seniors (most starters), but this years team would have five seniors that had contributed to last year’s win total and would have played major parts in the success or failure of 2020.
Mason Tucker # 4
Ryan Mattingly # 2
Cade Thompson # 5
Lain Peake # 21
Sam Johnson # 11
Thompson was a part of the pitching rotation from the left side.
Sam Johnson would have also thrown from the right as well.
Lain Peake had been an outfielder during 2019, but may have played other spots.
Ryan Mattingly was very versitale as a DH and playing third and would saw lots of playing time.
Tucker had been consistant at the plate as had all the Eagles.
When asked if they felt like preparing for a season that suddenly came to a surprising halt before it even began, I wondered if any of the seniors needed some closure to move on from this. Surprisingly, it was a tough question to answer.
It may have been Lain Peake that simply said “We would have loved to have played.”
Robinson may have put the tight situation in better prespective when he said that last year’s team had surprised many people by winning as many games as it did and he felt like so many of the same would have looked past this group as well in 2020. That they had always showed that they could play well in pressure situations and would have undoubtably done it again. Also, that it was a shame that this group of kids simply would not get that chance to do so after all the hard work they had put in during the offseason.
Also, he felt like the 19th District had always been looked past by several because of the dominance of the traditional success of the 17th (Central Hardin, Elizabethtown and North Hardin) and maybe he was right. Since Elizabethtown had won their last Region title in 2016, there has been three different champions and the Bardstown, Nelson County and Bethlehem have all played a part in the different landscape.
Why not 2020?
So maybe the high school baseball season never happened this year, but at least the Eagle seniors for one night got to feel special and honored on an evening when the eyes of Bethlehem were on them.
