The Cedartown Middle School baseball season will be getting started Saturday and Head Coach Jeff Collier is expecting a very good year.

“Coach Tim Puckett and I are excited about the team and the expectations are high,” Collier said. “Coach Puckett brings experience and middle school baseball knowledge to the Cedartown team this year as he has coached at several different schools, including Rockmart the last couple of years. This will be my first year coaching the middle school baseball program. We think we have a pretty talented team this year. A good mixture of talent throughout the roster.”

Those talented players that Collier is referring to are Blake Oxenreider, Bradley Welchel, Cason Davenport, Chris Tanner, Cody Mesta, Colton Puckett, Drew Reilly, Dylan Simmons, Jake Collier, Jimmy Hand, Kory Lindsey, Lance Banks, Ryan Casey, Taylor Truett, Travis West, Tyler Rhodes and Will Parsegian.

Collier says that at this time he thinks the pitching should be a strength for the young Bulldogs.

“I think that our pitching will be strong,” Collier said. “Chris Tanner, Dylan Simmons, Cody Mesta, Ryan Casey and Tyler Rhodes will be doing most of our pitching and all of them could have real good years.”

At the plate Collier says the team will need to be disciplined and should rely on the basics to score runs.

“Most of the boys look to have good hand-eye coordination and they are putting the ball into play a good bit,” Collier said. “But this season we will look to manufacture runs with hustle.”

The first-year CMS baseball coach said that defensively the team looks solid.

“Our gloves look good,” Collier said.

The season starts this Saturday at home against Rome. It will be a doubleheader with the first game getting started at 11 a.m.

“If coach Puckett and I do our jobs, we should see some success,” Collier said.

After Saturday's game, the CMS baseball team will play again on Tuesday, March 11 at Rockmart at 4:30 p.m.

On Saturday, March 15 Carrollton will visit CMS for a doubleheader. The first game will get started at 11 a.m.

Collier concluded that he hoped the town will come out to support the program this spring for all 12 of their games.

“At the middle school level, we appreciate the community for their support with all contributions and attendance. Unfortunately, this trend will not stop anytime soon as there is always a need for more financial support. We invite everyone out to our games to support the boys, the program and to enjoy youth baseball.”