LONDON — South Laurel coach Trey Smith reflected on his Cardinals’ 2023 campaign, expressing his pride in his team’s accomplishments.
“I feel like this team accomplished a lot over the course of the year,” he said. “They showed a ton of grit in the middle of the year when things weren’t going our way and finished really strong to get 20 wins.”
Smith was particularly pleased with South Laurel’s offensive progress at the plate, noting the Cardinals finished the season hitting .329 as a team, which was a best for his coaching tenure. “This team really bought into what we were trying to do offensively and it showed by the number of runs we were able to score,” he said.
South Laurel had several key moments throughout the season, but Smith pointed to the Cardinals’ performance during spring break at Myrtle Beach as particularly noteworthy.
“We played really good competition and battled all week,” he said. “We proved to ourselves that we could compete with anyone if we played to our strengths and kept fighting for seven innings.”
The Cardinals (20-15) finished regular season play with five consecutive wins, which Smith said was big for the team.
“We definitely had ups and downs throughout the year, but they came together and really finished on a high note playing good competition to finish the season,” he said.
Moving forward, Smith said his Cardinals need to work on minimizing damage and taking away the big inning when playing a quality opponent.
“That got us several times this year and moving forward we have to find a way to limit those big innings to keep ourselves within striking distance,” he admitted.
Despite the challenges, Smith believes this year was huge for the program in many ways.
“For the first time, I will be returning eight players that have over 50 varsity at-bats, and four pitchers that have thrown over 35 innings in varsity games,” he said. “We gained a ton of experience to build on moving forward. If we work hard in the offseason and take another step, we should have a great group coming back for next season.”
Smith is excited South Laurel’s returning players, including seniors Cole Harville and Hunter Bundy, who have been starters since their freshmen year. He also has a talented junior class and a mixture of young talent right behind them.
“It is exciting to look at the level of talent we have coming up and I can’t wait to get started with them,” he said.
While the Cardinals will be losing some great players in the senior class, including Ashton Garland and Ayden Smith, who were both leaders and productive players, Smith is confident in the team’s ability to fill those roles.
“They did a lot of things for our team to be successful,” he said. “Ashton was our guy who set the table and he led the state this year in runs scored. Ayden led us in RBI and was a big power bat for us the last four years.
“We will also be losing Alex Collett and Bryson Ray, both of whom were great leaders and gave our team quality innings that helped us be successful,” Smith added. “But we have a lot of talent coming up and I know they will step up and fill those roles.”
Smith emphasized the importance of team-first mentality and leadership in the success of the program.
“All of our seniors were great leaders and put the team first,” he said. “That’s the kind of culture we want to build here at South Laurel, and I know our returning players will continue to carry that forward.”
Looking ahead to next season, Smith is optimistic about the team’s potential.”We have a lot of talent and experience coming back, and I know they will work hard in the offseason to continue to improve,” he said. “I’m excited to see what this team can accomplish next year.”
