[Lost Ball]

After watching the AC and Paintsville game yesterday this is the impression I get of both teams.

Paintsville is well coached and has a lot of talented athletes. Grimm did a great job keeping AC's players on their heels. They seem to have good team chemistry already early in the season. Not much to dislike about this team. Although, like many teams in the 15th...Paintsville as a team, needs to work on their sportsmanship. This isn't new to the program. They are famous for this.
All in all, they have a great new coach in Tucker Howard. He has fantastic assistant coaches...especially Coach Lyons. Other than the attitudes...they are a first-class program.

As for AC...I think it's going to take a couple of weeks and maybe 10 games for them figure out the roles on their team. They don't have the chemistry that Paintsville has right now. AC has the talent and intelligence on their team to compete with everyone.

Everyone in the stands yesterday noticed and commented on some of the disturbing tendencies of a couple of AC's players though. AC had one kid strike out 3 straight times and every single time he came back to the dugout, he first threw his bat and then threw his helmet. It's bad enough to strike out...but drawing attention to yourself by throwing mini-fits of rage really displays poor judgement and character. If you strike out...run off the field with class...don't punish everyone with your baby-like tantrums.

Players on AC's team could be overheard getting on the kid for acting like a child. If I were the coach for AC...I would of put the kid on the bench after the first episode of immaturity...and left him there for a few games. Also, I've heard plenty of college coaches say there is no way they would take a kids that shows this lack of integrity.

AC will probably win 17-20 games...if they can straighten out the "playpen" (not the dugout in this case). What a shame for 17-18 year old kids to act like that. 1 or 2 players "acting out" ruins it for everyone...that might be the downfall for AC this season.

Good luck to AC and Paintsville for the remainder of the season!