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Augusta State’s baseball program, generally speaking, has rarely done much to capture the attention of the student population and alumni.
There have been pockets of success, such as in 2004 when the Diamond Jaguars finished 38-18 and spent much of the season ranked in the top 20, but overall, the hardball team has not been able to maintain anything approaching the consistent excellence of Augusta State’s men’s golf and basketball programs.
But that could be about to change.
As he settles into his third season heading up the baseball team, Chris Cooper has the Jaguars poised for a breakthrough into the Peach Belt’s upper crust.
Whether 2012 will be the year the Jaguars take the next step and earn an NCAA Tournament bid remains to be seen. Early returns have been mixed. The team opened its season by taking two of three games from Carson-Newman and then splitting four road games with Paine and West Georgia.
But even if this isn’t the year that the Jags put it all together, that season will not be far in coming. Cooper is still growing as a coach, and considering the progress he’s already been able to make since going 16-31 in his first season, that portends very good things for the Jaguar program in the days ahead.
Heading into the 2011 campaign, a fan asked Cooper if he thought his team could reach the .500 mark. Though his team was picked by the media to finish dead last in the Peach Belt, Cooper responded that he had much higher hopes than just breaking even.
It was that kind of confidence that allowed Augusta State to surprise everyone by coming within a single victory of winning the Peach Belt Tournament last spring. The Jags were not the most talented team in the conference last year, but you could make a good argument that they were the scrappiest.
Cooper’s work building the Augusta State program is far from done. The Jags struggled offensively last year, and the hitting in the early part of the season has again been sporadic. Cooper, who anchored the Jaguars lineup as a first basemen a decade ago, knows he has to get some more pop in his batting order.
But one of the things that has been most impressive about Cooper has been the willingness he has shown to adapt to his personnel. Though he was a prolific power hitter in college, Cooper employed a run-heavy, small-ball attack that helped the Jags win several games last year that they, frankly, had little business winning. The mark of a good coach is the ability to adjust to the talent he has at his disposal rather than trying to make his players fit into his philosophy. Instead of waiting around on the three-run homer that likely is not going to come, Cooper has demonstrated he is not afraid to be aggressive and force the issue.
More to the point, despite the fact that he was a slugger himself, Cooper understands that a team has to be able pitch at an elite level to compete for championships, and he has assembled what has to rank as one of the finest staffs in Augusta State history. Scott Shipman, who joined the program the same year Cooper took over, was named a preseason All American and gives the Jags an excellent chance to win every time he steps on the hill. Josh Barks, Dylan Wall and Kip Custer have all impressed in early-season starts, and hard-throwing closer Wilson Taylor anchors a deep bullpen.
Though Augusta State is still a work in progress, once Cooper is able to put together a lineup that can match the talent and depth of his outstanding pitching staff, there will be no limit to what the Jaguars program will be able to accomplish.
