Trojan Tradition

While Trinity Christian Academy has a rich baseball tradition, the 2008 Trojans are short on history.
Seniors make up half of this year’s roster with eight of the 16 players in their last year at TCA. Unfortunately, only four of the seniors have varsity experience.
“We’ve got sort of a peculiar team,” said coach Jack Sharp. “We are not young, but we’re inexperienced. The guys we’ve hadn’t yet gotten their shot because they were behind some pretty good players. I think they can be pretty good, but they just haven’t had a chance to prove it yet.”
“We just don’t have a lot of guys that have a load of innings pitched or a lot of guys that have had a ton of at-bats. Most of our players are new to this level of play.”
The Trojans enjoyed a great run in 2007. They went 22-9, won District 1-6A and advanced to the TAPPS state semifinals, where they lost to eventual state champion Houston St. Thomas.
“We had a pretty good team last year but we lost some good players,” said Sharp. “We lost three of our top four players and our three-four-five hitters. We’ve got some work to do.”
The Trojans have advanced to state 15 times in school history, including the last three seasons in a row. In 2006, the Trojans won the state title while they lost in the semifinals in 2005 and 2007.
Sharp is one of the keys to TCA’s success. A long-time coach with the Dallas Mustangs, a nationally renowned summer club, Sharp came to TCA in 1996 as an assistant to Steve Adair. Adair had been the baseball coach at SMU before the college dropped its program and Sharp had been a volunteer assistant. Sharp became TCA’s head coach when Adair died of bone marrow cancer in 2001.
If Trinity Christian has another good year in 2008, it will be because of pitching. The Trojans should be strong on the mound.
Senior James Foster (5-foot-10, 170) compiled a 7-2 record last year on the mound and batted .408, with four homers and 34 RBIs. He plays the outfield when he’s not pitching. The left-handed Foster is a three-time All-District selection and was named All-State last year. A good student, Foster has already committed to play college baseball at Wofford College in South Carolina.
Trinity’s No. 2 starter is senior Matt Crabtree, who was 3-0 last season. Senior Collin Jones also saw some innings on the mound in 2007.
Trinity should receive a big boost from sophomore Ryan Doerhoff, who starts at 3B and also pitches. “He’s got a chance to be pretty good,” Sharp said.
The Trojans are strong up the middle, with starters back at second base and shortstop. James Leslie, who hit .274 last year, is back at second, while Derrick May mans short. Both are seniors.
May enjoyed a chance to bat this season, something he didn’t always do in 2007. “He did a great job on defense last year,” Sharp said. “We DHed for him most of the season, so he’ll have something to prove when he gets up to the plate this year.”
As the season unfolds, the Trojans will be looking for additional hitting from almost every position.
“Hitting is probably going to be the weakest part of our game this year,” Sharp said. “We lost guys that hit .427, .375, .369, .364 and 347 to graduation. We’ll be decent at pitching and we’ll be solid with defense, but we aren’t going to overpower anybody with our bats.”
While Sharp hopes that his team’s hitting will come around, he knows that several of his TAPPS District 1-6A foes will be strong at the plate. He believes that the Trojans are underdogs in the 2008 district battle.
“We’ll definitely have an uphill battle in our district,” Sharp said. “It is going to be a tough district this year. Bishop Lynch was strong last year and they’ve got a lot of kids coming back. Fort Worth Nolan should be good, too.”
But that doesn’t mean Sharp and the Trojans are backing away from the fight. After all, they have tradition on their side. They’ve won district as the underdog before.
“We are going to have to pitch well, play error-free defense and squeak out runs when we can, but I’ve had baseball teams do that for me in the past,” Sharp said. “It’s not a bad way to go.”