FPD is a collection of mighty good and hard-working baseball players, but veteran head coach Greg Moore is dazzled by more than the skills
By Michael A. Lough
The Sports Report
centralgasports@gmail.com
The smile that creases Greg Moore’s face on some topics is not one of great joy or enthusiasm, but one of appreciation and satisfaction.
And when he talks about his team, he’s going to smile.
It’s not just because FPD’s baseball team is good, nor because it’s playing in its second straight GIAA Class AAAA championship series.
The smile comes when talking about the players. Teenagers as a whole can tend to inspire frowns and head-shaking more than smiles, but not this group.
The 31-3 Vikings have some star power that you’d only know by stats and discussion, and by, well, watching them play and do something that catches your eye.
But if Keon Johnson isn’t going deep in a hole and nailing somebody at first or sending a pitch 400 feet, and if Conner Strandmark isn’t throwing a no-hitter in one game and coming back 90 minutes later for a huge one-pitch rally-killing effort, you’d not know they’re capable of that.
“Listen, I know you think I'm crazy,” Moore said. “These kids love each other, man. They are very tight, and it's created an extremely positive culture that that is very unique, and I think they know it. I think they cherish it, they protect it, and they're very careful to try not to mess it up.”
“They are very tight, and it’s created an extremely positive culture that that is very unique, and I think they know it.”
The Vikings will need all hands on deck when they open the series against Brookstone at Synovus Park at – hopefully, after three games and with weather issues expected – 7 p.m. on Thursday.
Brookstone has handled city rival St. Anne-Pacelli, Bulloch, and Tattnall in the postseason. The Cougars are 26-6, and a whopping 12-1 against opponents shared with FPD. The Vikings are 8-1 against that group of Pacelli, Bulloch, Heritage, Tiftarea, Westfield, and Tattnall.
The Cougars were threatened in the second round when Bulloch won the second game 7-0. Brookstone responded well, with a 10-0 win, its 10th shutout of the year and, to that point, 10th game of at least 10 runs.
They have a few GHSA wins under their belt: 14-2 and 13-0 over Marion County, 14-1 against Shaw and 7-0 over Columbus.
Brookstone is 9-1 since a two-game losing streak against Calvary Christian.
Catcher Gray Jones leads the Cougars with a .391 average (MaxPreps stats have not been updated since the Tattnall series), five points ahead of Brennan Neal. Mercer Hudson has the team lead with four homers.
Neal and Hudson have teamed for 51 stolen bases.
Chanwoo Kim is the staff ace, and improved to 12-3 after a 13-3 win over Tattnall last week. He needed only 82 pitches in the 6-inning complete-game win, with four strikeouts and three walks. Neal struck out 10 with two walks in the complete game 2-1 win over the Trojans in the clincher.
Kim and Neal both pitched in last year’s championship-clinching 9-5 win over FPD, after taking the opener 7-3 at Luther Williams Field.
Many of the FPD names are the same from last year’s state runner-up, but this is still a different team.
“We were different in terms of how we scored runs, and from a pitching standpoint, we were different last year than we are this year,” Moore said. “We had a lot of guys that put a lot of innings in last year.
“We have a lot of guys who are certainly capable but we don't have a lot of guys with a ton of innings this year. So that's probably the biggest difference.”
This year’s offense may have an edge.
In the opener against Athens Christian in the semifinal, seven Vikings got hits. In the nightcap, eight. Different players had two-hit and multiple-RBI games in the doubleheader.
“It doesn't mean we don't miss some guys that were on that team,” Moore said, “because we had some guys on that team that hit very well.”
And there was a little more to that team, as with this one, that just hitting, pitching, and defense.
“Well, listen, our heart and soul for two years Hayes Bryant,” Moore said. “We had Gavin Spillers, who was a threat to leave the ballpark on any swing.
“And we had Cody Strandmark, older brother of Conner who waited until a senior year to bat like .340, and was just fantastic. He was awesome. A very, very, very strong, vocal, powerful, positive presence as a team leader. He and Hayes both were.
“And there were more.”
This year’s team doesn’t quite have replacements for those guys, so to speak. For one, this is a younger team, with but three seniors, only one of whom is a regular.
Not a problem on a team where accepting roles is just part of the plan.
“We obviously play a bunch of juniors, and those juniors are a very close, very tight-knit group,” Moore said. “And they kind of share the wealth when it comes to who's saying what and when and how. Some of them are leaders by example, some of them are vocal leaders.”
The mood stays positive and focused because Moore and his staff tend spread the praise around.
“We've kind of told the guys, ‘Don't worry too terribly much about who's first or who's second or whatever,” Moore said. “It's very situational and it could change in a heartbeat.”
Take Conner Crosby, the busier senior.
“He's played in left, he's played in right, he's pitched a little bit for us,” Moore said. ”He may not get in, but he may, and he may not just get in, he may play a critical role. And it may not be until about the fifth inning. It's just crazy, it really it is.
“I can tell you it’s his without question. That one needs an extra wash. There’s no question. He’s living in the dirt, man. He is a first-class team warrior, man.”
“We probably can play 14, 15 guys.”
Knocking Brady McHugh from the lineup is quite a task. He makes plays on the field, on the mound, or at the plate, as he did against Stratford in the second-round series. He belted a sixth-inning home run that sparked the offense in the first-game win, then turned in a gutty relief effort in the 6-5 second-game win, in which he scored the game-winner.
Without seeing a number, Moore knows when McHugh’s threads pass by en route to the washer.
“I can tell you it's his without question,” Moore said. “That one needs an extra wash. There's no question. He’s living in the dirt, man. He is a first-class team warrior, man.”
Amid this run, of course, there are some eyes on Moore, and what his future holds. The 1984 FPD graduate is in his fifth year as head baseball coach, and is nearly three decades in as the athletics director.
He finished a 22-year career as head football coach after the 2022 season, and was the head boys basketball coach for a dozen years.
The past few years have been his least busy, and the past few baseball years may have been his most gratifying.
A championship this week would be FPD’s first since 2010, and there’s something to be said about timing and going out on top. On the other hand, Johnson – considered among the top 50 high school players in the country - and Strandmark are among the many underclassmen.
“I have so much respect for the kids,” Moore said. “The greatest thing about what has evolved on our team over the course of the year - we've had a great season and it's obviously highly competitive in our own locker room - But they honor and respect each other, and they've done the greatest job maybe of any team I've ever coached of understanding roles and being okay with it.”
The draw of another year with a group like that – including those with whom Moore will travel to Nicaragua this July on a mission trip - may overwhelm any natural inclination to go out on top.
Like the story he told of a recent team gathering.
“We went out to dinner as a team, and I just sit there and marvel at it and it makes me so full and content,” he said. “We're just covering the back corner of Sonny's barbecue restaurant and the kids, they're just dying laughing. They're just laughing, they're having fun, and, man, it's hard to get your hands around creating that and seeing it come to life like that.
“It is what is a rare thing, and it is, for lack of a better word, it's precious.”