Sports

Leaders of the pack
Part II

• Lee County slugger Jeremy Sheffield sets the tone for a Trojans playoff run.

Derek Barichello

LEESBURG — It’s been awhile since Lee County coach Rob Williams could write out his lineup card with this much confidence.

And it all starts at the top.

Inked in the lead-off spot all season, senior Jeremy Sheffield has been the catalyst for a Trojans team that has won 15 of their last 16 games heading into the first round of the GHSA AAAA state playoffs today in a doubleheader at home against Evans High School.

And Sheffield’s numbers — .495 batting average with six doubles, three triples, and 21 RBI — are enough to scare whomever Evans puts on the mound.

“It takes a special breed to lead off,” Williams said. “We haven’t had a leadoff hitter in a couple years that can compare.”

The Trojans, which has won Region 1-AAAA five of the last six years and made the Class AAAA Final Four last season before losing, open the best-of-three series beginning at 5 p.m. today with Game 3 scheduled for noon Saturday, if necessary.

But Williams says that if Sheffield has anything to do with it, Game 3 will never come.

“(To hit lead off), you have to take pitches. You have to be confident with two strikes. You have to get on base. You have to know how to bunt and make contact. You have to run the bases well,” Williams said of Sheffield. “Jeremy does all those things.”

In fact, Williams had to go all the way back to former Trojans and current Florida State catcher and two-time Johnny Bench Award nominee Buster Posey from his 2005 team to find a comparable lead-off hitter. And with Posey a prototypical three-hitter, even that move was out of necessity.

Sheffield, on the other hand, acts the part.

Knowing his at-bat sets the tone for the rest of the lineup, he steps into the batter’s box willing to make the ultimate sacrifice for his team.

“It might get ugly sometimes but my role is to see a lot of pitches and get on base,” said Sheffield, who has only recorded four strikeouts at the plate all year. “I’m not afraid to take pitches and come from behind in the count. Then, I try for a hard base hit.”

Taking those pitches and wearing down those opponents is not lost on his teammates.

“He sets us up,” Trojans No. 3 hitter Taylor Howell said. “I just know when I come up, he’ll be there waiting on base for me to hit him in.”

And Williams is thankful for it.

These days when he fills out his lineup card, it depends on Sheffield’s ability to get on base, with everyone else falling in line like dominoes.

The Trojans’ No. 2 hitter Brian Hegle’s role then is to move Sheffield over and Howell, cleanup-hitter Matt Aldrich and No. 5 hitter Easton Glover’s roles are to hit him in.

And when the Trojans are one — like they have been for the past 16 games — it’s kind of like clockwork.

“We work every day on situational hitting and everyone knowing their role,” Williams said. “With Jeremy hitting the way he can at lead-off, everyone else on the team can focus on their job and grow confidence.”

It has come to the point that Williams cannot comprehend what life would be like without Sheffield setting the table for what Lee County hopes is a state championship feast after falling just short in 2007.

“I’m gonna miss him,” said Williams of Sheffield, who signed to play at West Georgia last season, where his brother, Derrick, also played. “It makes you that much better to have that leading guy."

Fortunately for Williams, he will have Sheffield for at least another two games, as the Trojans try to redeem themselves from a year ago.

"We're confident," Sheffield said. "We're just going to keep swinging the bats and playing well and we'll see what happens."

Part I>>
Back to today's Sports>>