Prep Baseball Report

Become a Member

More +

TN HS Team Preview: Heritage Mountaineers

January 11, 2024
Hunter Martin
TN Scouting Director

The 2024 high school baseball season is quickly approaching and as usual, excitement abounds 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 Spring Fling as they compete for a state championship, 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 and by continuing other pieces of content covering the Volunteer State.

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, updating the Power 25 and much more.

*Please note the information has been gathered from head coaches across the state, based on their replies to the questionnaire we distributed over this offseason.

High School: Heritage High School
Head Coach: Robbie Bennett
Classification: AAA
District + Region Number: Region 3 + District 5
2023 Record (Finish): 11-23
No. of Returning Positional Starters: 3-4
No. of Returning Pitchers: 3
Team Strengths: Pitching Depth and Athleticism

 

TOP RETURNING PLAYERS

TEAM OUTLOOK

Heritage had an interesting 2023 season and definitely were better than their record of 11-23 suggests. They would teeter-totter between shutting teams out and then getting shut out themselves. This year the Mountaineers will be moving down to classification AAA from AAAA and look to take the competitive experience of playing AAAA 2023 state championship finalists Farragut and Hardin Valley multiple times into their 2024 season. The Mountaineers will be replacing quite a bit of experience from a season ago but will return 4 positional starters across the field to go along with their entire 3 man pitching rotation from a season ago. Timely hitting and scoring runs were hard to come by last year as the club scored 10+ runs only twice, while having 10 games scoring 0 runs, with 21 games scoring 3 runs or less. Pitching will ultimately be what not wins them games but keeps them competitive in games as pitching depth and athleticism seem to be this year’s team strength. The team does return a few seniors that have years of experience playing such as Tyler Adsit who hit .284 last season and Clay Travis who will man SS and provide quality defense. On the hill, the club will be led by senior Aiden Smith who threw 40 innings a season ago to a 3.88 ERA to go along with 33 K’s. The bulk of this season’s team will be mostly comprised of junior and sophomore players. Braden Cooper will man the centerfield position and offers speed on the bases, as well as deep tracking ability. ‘26 Thomas Bowers will tandem at 2nd base and is another really solid athlete who can get on base and steal bags. Rounding out the backend of the rotation will be a couple of ‘26 class prospects in Derek Hodge who fired 20 innings last season, as well as Hayden Sanders, who pitched 24 innings a season ago to a tune of a 4.80 ERA to go along 21 K’s. This team will have to be aggressive on the bases, have discipline at-bats, draw walks and be able to play small ball when the time presents itself. Quality pitching deep into games and strong defensive play will have to carry them in games. The Mountaineers will look to younger class kids to step up offensively and will need one or two guys to carry the club in that regard. Look for Heritage to perform better this season in a different classification and don’t be surprised if their record is above .500 and competitive in their district if they can fit the puzzle pieces all together.

Find more information on the 2024 Heritage High School program below:

+ Follow them on X: @HHS_Bsbl
+ Visit the Prep Baseball Tennessee Team Previews Page

FOLLOW PREP BASEBALL TENNESSEE THROUGHOUT THE SPRING

+ Prep Baseball Tennessee on X
+ Prep Baseball Tennessee on Instagram
+ Prep Baseball Tennessee on Facebook

 

Related Content