Tennessee HS Team Preview: Decatur County Riverside Panthers
December 23, 2024
The 2025 Tennessee high school baseball season is quickly approaching and, as usual, excitement is abound throughout the state. Players and coaches have been working in preparation for the upcoming season and, as is the case each year, there are some very talented players and teams across Tennessee.
Teams across the state have goals and aspirations to finish their seasons in Murfreesboro at the state tournament championships – but there is plenty of work to be done before that becomes reality. We hope to familiarize our readers with many of the teams across the state as we preview individual teams across Tennessee. We will take you right up to first pitch this season with these team previews, eventually releasing our Preseason Power 25 rankings that’ll carry us into the opening week of action.
Please keep checking back throughout the season as we will be your one-stop shop for everything related to high school baseball across the state. Each week we will be releasing our Players of the Week and updating the Power 25 rankings.
Our 2025 preseason coverage continues today.
High School: Decatur County Riverside
Head Coach: Eric Quinn
TSSAA Classification: AA
District & Region: District 13AA + Region 7AA
2024 Record (Playoff Finish): 21-18 (State Tourney Participant)
ROSTER PREVIEW
+ No. Returning Positional Starters: 5
+ No. Returning Pitchers: 5
+ Key Returners:
- C Connor Newberry (2025)
- 1B/LHP Jace England (2026)
- RHP/OF Peyton Kirk (2025)
- OF/RHP Cody Brasher (2026)
- INF/RHP Cole Yarbro (2026)
2025 OUTLOOK
+ Decatur County Riverside comes into the 2025 season on the heels of a state tournament berth in 2024 with an overall record of 21-18. At the 2024 Spring fling, Riverside would win their opening round matchup against Sweetwater before losing to eventual state runner-up Huntington twice, ending their season.
Going 2-2 in the state tournament is a pretty strong accomplishment and should factor into some extra motivation going into this season as Riverside looks to get back to Murfreesboro. The Panthers return 5 positional starters alongside 5 pitchers on the mound. This group will be led by a few upperclassmen that include 3-year senior starting catcher Connor Newberry. Newberry hit .272 last season with 22 RBI’s while commanding the pitching staff. Senior OF/RHP Peyton Kirk is a 2-year starter that will supply solid defensive prowess and should anchor the pitching staff coming off 44 innings last season. Kirk will also supply opportunistic spark in the lineup coming off a .308 avg with 6 2B’s, 26 RBI’s with 26 runs scored in 2024. You then have a trio of juniors in 3-year starter 1B/LHP Jace England, who hit .277 with 20 RBI’s alongside 33 BB’s that factored into a .465 OBP. OF/RHP Cody Brasher is an athletic talent with potential at the plate and sneaky pop (7 2B’s with 2 HR’s) who should see an increase in his numbers this season at the plate, alongside pitching in more meaningful innings being one of their district pitchers.
Up the middle you will have Cole Yarbro who brings a coachable attitude and a hard working mentality that will be looked upon to be a leader, while being called to step up on the mound more this season. Yarbro is also coming off a respectable 2024 campaign where he batted .292 with 4 2B’s, 1 triple with 27 runs scored.
The Riverside Panthers will rely on their strength of being a coachable unit with a forward thinking attitude. Although that in itself does not win games in the box score, it does bring a significant impact to their overall group that should help them stack wins together in district play as they look to get back to the state tournament in 2025.
Find more information on Decatur County Riverside’s 2025 season below:
+ Find more 2025 team previews on our TSSAA Season Preview page
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