Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Summer Season Complete


The 2010 Franklin Outlaws 18's Summer season is now complete. The team performed well in every tournament in which it competed including a very solid performance in the WWBA 18U Wood Bat Championship in Atlanta, GA.

Jessep Polk was the lone player on the roster with high school eligibility remaining for the 2010-11 season. Jessep contributed both at the plate hitting over .300 for the summer. In addition to his offensive contribution, he also played well defensively at catcher calling games for a very experienced pitching staff and playing some Right field. The rest of the Outlaws roster has either completed one year of college play or is signed to continue their playing careers at the college level next year. Some of the schools represented on the Outlaws roster include Vanderbilt, Duke, Memphis, Lipscomb, UNC Charlotte, MTSU, Xavier, Southeast Missouri St.

Recruiters, for detailed information about Jessep's summer contact:
Brian Ryman at 615-715-4952 or Matt Thomas 812-493-9327.

Jessep's next plan is to participate in the Smokies Baseball Showcase July 24 @ Smokies Park. He will then begin his senior year and prepare to continue playing this fall with the Outlaws organization.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Schedule Update

Rain has been the story of the summer the last couple of weeks with the Outlaws playing intermittently around rain storms. Big Finish Coming for the Summer!!!

Franklin Outlaws 18's @ Lipscomb University

June 24 2:00 v East Cobb Braves
4:15 v Clarksville Orioles 18's

June 25 1:00 v Brentwood Bulldogs
3:30 v East Cobb Cardinals

June 26 TBD

June 28 - July 5 WWBA 18U event in Marietta, GA

July 5-8 Vanderbilt University Tournament

July 14-18 Sandlott Championships Nashville, TN

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

East Cobb Showcase Weekend

June 4-6 kicked off the summer season with five games in the East Cobb Nashville Showcase. The Outlaws knocked the dust off with a 4-1 record on the weekend.

Jessep Polk joined the new and very talented team as the lone rising Senior on the roster and found several ways to contribute to the teams success right away. Jessep came on in relief, due to a depleted pitching staff and threw two innings in the first game of the weekend. The rest of the weekend Jessep shared the catching duties and patrolled right field as well. At the plate he was 6/12 with 2 doubles, 3 RBI and a HBP. Defensively, he was solid through out the weekend.

This week is a busy one for Jessep and the Outlaws team:

Tuesday, June 8 MTSU Elite Prospect Camp
Wednesday, June 9 Outlaws v. Clarksville Orioles 7:00 @ Lipscomb University
Thursday, June 10 Outlaws v. SE Roadwarriors 9:00 am @ Lipscomb University
Thursday, June 10 Outlaws v. Evansville Wolfpack 11:30 am @ Lipscomb University
Friday, June 11 Outlaws v. Memphis Tigers 4:30 pm @ Lipscomb University
Saturday, June 12 TBA @ Lipscomb
Saturday, June 12 TBA @ Lipscomb
Sunday, June 13 TBA @ MTSU

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Summer Begins Now


Jessep received two awards at the LHS Spring Sports Banquet.

2010 Offensive Player of the Year
Won the team triple crown of hitting: .406 avg, 4 HR, 32 RBI

2010 All-Region 9 AAA selection

Outlaws Summer Schedule Ready to Begin

Nashville East Cobb Showcase!!!!


Friday, June 4 11:30am vs. M G B A at Ezell-Harding HS

4:30pm vs. TN Cyclones at Nashville Christian

Sat., June 5 9:00am vs. Strike One Sidewinders at Overton HS

2:00pm vs. Chatt Cherokees at Nashville Christian

Sun., June 6 2:30pm vs. North AL Vipers at Trevecca


Monday, May 10, 2010

Junior Season Complete

The 2010 Lebanon High School baseball season is now officially in the books. A tough year of two very distinct halves saw the very young Blue Devil's team win 12 games on the season. Expectations will be much higher entering the 2011 season with every player returning as no seniors were on the roster in 2010.

Jessep Polk finished an outstanding campaign on a bit of down note after sustaining a strained peck on his non-throwing side with about 6 games to play. hHe had to miss one game and was relegated to DH duty for a few others before resuming full time play with pain the last couple of games. The injury was not severe but did take a toll on his productivity at the plate for a few games. His final unofficial statistical line is as follows:

42/104 .404 BA, 4 HR, 2 3B, 5 2B, 35 RBI, 10 BB, 3 HBP, 10 K

Jessep's 30 RBI accounted for 20% of the teams runs this season, not including runs he scored.


Jessep will begin preparations for the Summer with the Music City Outlaws over the next few weeks. I will post and distribute another article summarizing that schedule as well as any other opportunities to see him in action. At this time he is scheduled to attend the MTSU June 8 showcase, and given the opportunity will tryout for the TBCA Team and possibly the Team TN Sunbelt Team.

Be looking for more updates through the summer.

Monday, April 26, 2010

Bound to be Days Like These

I guess if you are going to report the good it is only fair to report the less pleasant as well. This week was quit a struggle for the Lebanon HS baseball team. With only three games this week against the best teams we have played all year, all of our weaknesses were exposed. In two losses to Mt. Juliet and a loss to Beech, the guys managed only three runs scored for the week.

As for Jessep this week, he was minimally productive at the plate as well. Through three games he was 2/8 with 2 RBI and 1 run scored. He was able to play a significant role in all of the three LHS runs this week, but that is stretching it here. Facing Mt. Juliet's top pitchers (3 seniors who are committed to high level D-1 programs for the fall) he had some good AB's against some solid talent collecting both of his hits and a SAC fly RBI in that series. He continues to play a solid centerfield and had the opportunity to pitch one inning vs. Mt. Juliet surrendering one hit and two walks, while striking out one batter and giving up zero runs. It had been over a month since his last outing on the mound.

The team will have an opportunity this week to recover from what has become a long 1-10 skid as the regular season comes to a close in the next 8 days with 6 games on schedule.

Tuesday, April 27 Canceled
Wednesday, April 28 Station Camp HS @ Station Camp (Hendersonville) 7:00 pm
Thursday, April 29 Station Camp HS @ LHS 7:00 pm
Firday, April 30 Cookeville @ Cookeville 6:30pm

Saturday, May 1 Oakland @ Oakland (M'boro) 6:30pm
Monday, May 3 Oakland @ LHS 6:30pm
Tuesday, May 4 Cannon Co. @ Cannon Co. (Woodbury, TN) 5:00pm

May 7 Region 9 AAA Tournament TBA

Monday, April 19, 2010

A Tale of Two Halves

This past week for Lebanon High School baseball was a very busy with six games including a long out of town weekend. The first half of the week proved to be a very difficult couple of games versus conference rival Wilson Central, while the end of the week saw some pretty competitive action against Marshall County, Shelbyville Central, Lincoln County and Tullahoma. As a team the Blue Devils went 1-5 on the week with two heart breaking one run losses.

Jessep Polk has continued to carry a hot stick this week with one of his better efforts of the season. He struggled to hit the ball hard in the first part of the week, but continued to be productive, however over the six game span he went 12/23 with 2 doubles, a walk, 2 stolen bases and 5 RBI. His at bats demonstrated his ability to be a balance hitter spraying line drives in every direction on the diamond. The two doubles demonstrated variety as well, with one a deep drive to the gap in right center and the other a standard line drive single to center, but with aggressive base running out of the box Jessep was able to out hustle the defense to turn it into a double creating a run for the team.

Jessep continues to adjust to the new program and requests of his coach as he played centerfield in the first five games of the week before catching the final game vs. Tullahoma. In the one game caught he threw out the only attempted base stealer. He also adjusted to a new location in the batting line up as he was moved from the three hole to lead off over the weekend, a position he has never held. As a result he started three of the four games with a hit including one of the doubles.

This weeks game will present a great challenge for LHS and Jessep as they will face two very talented region opponents.

Tuesday, April 20 Mt. Juliet @ Baird Park, Lebanon 6:30
Wednesday, April 21 Mt. Juliet @ Mt. Juliet 7:00
Saturday, April 24 Beech @ Beech HS, Hendersonville 12:00

Monday, April 12, 2010

Mid Season Update

The Lebanon High School baseball team has just surpassed the midway point of the season with 18 games now under there belt. As of April 12 the team has surpassed everybody's expectations with a record of 10-7-1 on the year. The remaining weeks of the season will thrust this young crew into Region 9AAA fire as they will see home/away action against Wilson Central, Mt. Juliet, and Station Camp along with a single game with Beech.

This last week saw the guys take wins over Cookeville and Warren County followed by a pair of losses to Tullahoma.

Jessep Polk, the subject of this blog had a solid but fairly pedestrian week this week hitting .500 on a 5/10 clip (all singles) with 2 BB, 2 HBP, 2 reached on error, and 3 RBI. The scouting report must be getting out to avoid throwing a fastball anywhere near the zone and to nibble with the off speed stuff. Three of the five singles were to right field, most of them on curveballs. Jessep is working to adjust to the junk ball approach and drive the ball to rt center more frequently. The last four games also saw him in action in center field where he made several excellent running catches throughout the week. Although, he is not a natural outfielder he has taken the responsibility to do whatever the coaches ask of him and do everything he can to excel in that situation. Unfortunately, there is not any video available to document his work in center field. Playing the outfield has kept his legs fresh allowing him to steal bases this week including a steal of third.

Through 18 games Jessep's statistical line is as follows:

23/55 .418 BA, 2 2B, 2 3B, 4 HR, 23 RBI, 9 BB, 2 HBP, 4 K, 5 ROE, 1 SACFLY

This weeks LHS schedule is as follows:

4/13 Wilson Central @ LHS 6:30pm
4/14 Wilson Central @ WC 6:30pm
4/16-17 Shelbyville, Franklin Co. Tullahoma Tournament (4 games)

Monday, April 5, 2010

Week of March 29 - April 4

Lebanon High School played five games this week with a bit stiffer competition through the weekend including the top rated pitching prospect from Science Hill High School. Through the five game stretch, all at Veteran's Park in Lebanon, Jessep went 5/15 at the plate with a double, triple, 4 BB, and 6 RBI. This weeks at bats were more about driving the ball back up the middle and to right center producing the extra base hits and two deep outs over the weekend. Defensively, he split action by catching three games and playing center field in two. While behind the plate Jessep threw out one would be base stealer in only three attempted thefts.

Lebanon's schedule this week includes matchups with Warren County 6:30 Wednesday, Cookeville 6:30 Friday and a twin bill with Tullahoma 1:30 Saturday. All at Veteran's Park in Lebanon, TN.





Thursday, April 1, 2010

Player of the Week Honors

Jessep Polk of Lebanon High School in Lebanon, TN is not only off to a strong start with a new program, he is demonstrating the kind of young power any college coach would want out of his catcher. In three games over the weekend Jessep went 6/11 with a double and three HR's. Through nine games he is now sporting 4 HR's. Defensively, he has been splitting time between his catching duties and patrolling center field, using his speed to track down balls in cavernous outfield at Veteran's Field (406 to Ctr. field) and his strong arm to hold runners at bay. Behind the plate he is demonstrating tremendous leadership skills with a young pitching staff and keeping base-runners in check, throwing out the only runner to attempt a steal over the weekend.

This week the Lebanon team will host conference foe Portland on Monday. Other games this week, all at Veteran's Field in Lebanon will be Thursday @ 6:30 v Science Hill, Friday @ 5:30 v Henry County, and Saturday v. Powell @ 3:00 and Spring Hill @ 5:30.

Jessep was awarded player of the week honors at LHS for his contribution to the teams success over the weekend.