MOUNT VERNON – Mount Vernon’s Orange Sox 14U travel baseball team is finally seeing the rewards of a long journey of playing together, growing together and learning together.
Now — as they prepare to enter high school next season — these Orange Sox are winning together.
“High school is a big jump, but they’ve had a lot of success this year,” Orange Sox coach Corey Firebaugh said. “Some of these guys have been together since they were 8 years old. The whole goal — from Day One — was to be able to infuse good fundamental baseball players and a lot of depth into our high school system. With this group of freshmen next year, we want to make sure that they can make that transition.”
These Orange Sox are no ordinary travel team. Many travel teams have a hodgepodge of players from different school districts, but the Orange Sox all go to Mount Vernon Middle School and will enter the high school together. Firebaugh and his assistant coaches have been a guiding hand for this group — patiently teaching them the fundamentals of the game, the Yellow Jacket way.
“We put a lot of time and effort into doing things the way (Mount Vernon varsity coach Nate) Hunt would want us to do it,” Firebaugh said. “We do a lot of the same defensive calls as far as bunt coverages. We try to replicate as much as we can without getting too confusing. They'll eventually get that when they get to the high school level.”
The bond with this group of teammates is part of what they will take into high school. For Luke Hubbard, an Orange Sox catcher and outfielder, it’s an extended family.
“I’ve been with these guys for five years,” Hubbard said. “Lots of wins and losses. Lots of hard tournaments, and we had to fight through them. These guys are like my brothers.”
This year, Hubbard has a stronger arm and he’s hitting .360 with five doubles and a triple. Only teammates Zac Clow (.413) and Hayden Higgins (.385) are hitting for better average, but he doesn’t talk about stats.
The Orange Sox don’t say too much about the fact that they’re 24-7, hitting .334 as a team and enjoying their best year record-wise. The key for this group is that they are playing fundamentally sound baseball and learning how to win. Hubbard and his teammates point to their win on April 25 against a very tough Tri-County Curve 14U team as the one that defined the kind of team they have become.
Wes Neighbarger, a catcher and also a pitcher the Orange Sox have been using as their closer, was on the mound against Tri-County with the Orange Sox clinging to a 7-6 lead in the final inning.
“I struck out the first guy,” Neighbarger recalled. “Then the next guy singled. Then he stole second base. So I figured I better get the guy on second because if they get a hit, he would probably score.”
Neighbarger picked off the runner at second and then struck out the next batter for the game’s final out — and the Orange Sox’s first tournament win.
“Peyton Hempfield, our second baseman who tagged out that runner we picked off, told me he was talking to (the runner) and he distracted him, so we got him there,” Neighbarger said.
To go with that tournament win, the Orange Sox have been runner-up in three other tournaments.
“These guys have come a long way since we started coaching them,” Firebaugh said. “I’ve never really gauged things off of wins and losses. We’re more about playing the right way and good fundamentals. If you’re doing things the right way and you’re coachable, that means a lot.”
The Orange Sox are off this weekend, and then they will travel to Massillon to conclude the season with a 4th of July weekend tournament.
