How Roberson baseball can defend its NCHSAA state championship using freshmen
HENDERSONVILLE — Roberson pitcher Reno Jeter wanted the ball against West Henderson, the reigning NCHSAA 3A state baseball champions.
The senior didn’t care he pitched the night before to help the Rams beat Enka in extra innings.
“Honestly, Reno’s a dog like he doesn’t care,” junior first baseman Caden Davidson said. “He just goes out there, throws it right down the middle. He has that thought like you are not going to hit me. And that’s what we love about Reno.”
Jeter dominated the Falcons' potent lineup, allowing only one hit, three walks and a run while striking out six batters in three innings. His performance was a tone-setter as the Rams cruised to a 15-3 mercy rule victory over West Henderson (4-1) in six innings in Mills River last Thursday.
“He wanted the ball,” coach Eric Filipek said. “He threw, I think, 20 pitches yesterday. We knew he was limited. I said, ‘It’s not a do-or-die situation.’ But he wanted the opportunity.”
It was an early season test for the defending 4A state champions.
But Filipek insists that Roberson (3-1, 1-0 Mountain Athletic Conference) has a long way to go.
“Scoreboards are scoreboards,” he said. “We’re trying to play to get better. We’re still so far away from where we need to be.”
The Rams have already struggled with injuries this season. They utilized three freshmen in the win over West Henderson in Filipek’s son, Parker Filipek, Holt Gaston and Chappy Smith.
Filipek believes the Rams have also been playing scared at times.
“We have not been attacking the game,” Filipek said. “We’ve come out the first three games of the year, and we played a little complacent. We played a little bit not to lose, rather than to win.”
The Rams are also still trying to figure out everyone's role.
“The thing is most folks think that you just carry over from last year, and everything is the same,” Filipek said. “It doesn’t work that way. Now we got a new group here.
“We’re still going through the same process and figuring out who our leaders are, how we’re going to gel and play as a team.”
A good example of how the Rams are still trying to get accustomed to one another is in the infield. They graduated star shortstop Nick Parham, who now plays at East Carolina.
“We lost a senior shortstop last year that was our backbone who controlled everything,” Filipek said. “He didn’t have to say a word, and he controlled everything.”
Filipek has made some progress at shortstop at least. He didn’t have to look very hard for his replacement. The Rams found it in Parham’s younger brother, junior Jake Parham.
Jake Parham impressed Filipek with a diving effort to stop a ground ball against West Henderson.
“His younger brother stepped in now,” he said. “Made an incredible play that didn’t throw the guy out. But that’s a big-league play that he made at short.”
Hendersonville transfer and Wofford commit JT Smith has also fit in well with his new team. JT Smith finished with 2-for-3, including a solo home run over the left field wall against West Henderson.
Davidson is happy to have another powerful bat in the lineup who is also a solid catcher on defense.
“He’s good,” he said. “I feel like people are going to underestimate him a little bit. But we know that he is a dog, and he can do a lot for us.”
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Regardless of how much Roberson has to progress to defend its state title, Filipek still believes the Rams will eventually put it all together.
"We're gonna keep grinding like we always do," Filipek said. "And we'll figure it out."
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: How Roberson baseball can defend its NCHSAA state championship
