JOURNAL STAFF
Haughton coach Glenn Maynor didn’t have to look far to find someone to fill the hole caused by graduation to his pitching staff. He had the perfect replacement ready to go in Austin Anderson.
“Last year he was strictly a reliever and he did a great job with that,” said Maynor. “This year, we needed him to start games and he accepted that challenge and did a great job.”
Anderson, a junior, was 9-2 with a 1.72 ERA for the Bucs with 77 strikeouts in 61 innings pitched. But he did more than that, which is why he is the Outstanding Player on The Journal’s 2022 All-Metro baseball team.
“Throughout district, he was our best hitter and best pitcher,” Maynor said. “Obviously, he meant a lot to our team. Especially in the second half of the year, he was crushing it.”
When he wasn’t pitching, Anderson played first base and batted .398 with 12 doubles, one home run and 30 RBI.
The Coach of the Year is Calvary’s Jason Legg, who led the Cavaliers to a Division IV state championship in his first year as head coach.
Legg put together a schedule for Calvary that had them prepared for the state championship run, playing 12 games against Class 5A teams (the Cavs were 6-6 in those games). In addition to tough competition, the Cavs overcame adversity: they lost two starters to injury during the season and had another starter knocked out of the state semifinal game.
“I thought when we started (the season) that we could do what we accomplished this year,” Legg said. “We signed up for rings in week one and that wasn’t just coachspeak. I really believed it.”
Also considered for Coach of the Year was Northwood’s Austin Alexander, who led the Falcons to their first quarterfinal appearance since 2005 with a team that featured three freshman pitchers.
Four Cavaliers join Legg on the All-Metro team – senior pitcher Blaine Rogers, senior designated hitter Cody VanNoppen, senior shortstop Caden Flowers and sophomore outfielder Aubrey Hermes.
Only half of the players on the 16-player team are seniors.
Eight Shreveport-Bossier coaches, along with two local baseball observers, were invited to nominate and participate in selecting the Journal All-Metro team. The team was limited to one player at each standard position, plus a pitching staff consisting of four starters and a relief pitcher. Two utility players were chosen, based on having split time as both a pitcher and a position player.
The “Best of the Rest” is for those who were given strong consideration for the first team. The 11 selections were not chosen by position.
2022 SBJ ALL-METRO BASEBALL TEAM
Catcher – Zach Schoenborn, Parkway (Jr.)
First Base – Patrick Snead, Byrd (Sr.)
Second Base – Blake Fant, Captain Shreve (Sr.)
Shortstop – Caden Flowers, Calvary (Sr.)
Third Base – Harrison Waxley, Airline (Sr.)
Outfield – Tucker McCabe, Northwood (So.)
Outfield – Aubrey Hermes, Calvary (So.)
Outfield – Colin Rains, Haughton (Jr.)
Designated Hitter – Cody VanNoppen, Calvary (Sr.)
Pitcher – Austin Anderson, Haughton (Jr.)
Pitcher – Sawyer Simmons, Benton (Jr.)
Pitcher – William Soignier, Loyola (Sr.)
Pitcher – Blaine Rogers, Calvary (Sr.)
Relief Pitcher – Cale Latimer, Benton (Jr.)
Utility – Cade Josting, Parkway (Sr.)
Utility – Jaxon Bentzler, Northwood (Fr.)
Outstanding Player – Austin Anderson, Haughton
Coach of the Year – Jason Legg, Calvary
BEST OF THE REST
Christian Blackmon, Northwood (Fr.)
Jack Carlisle, Northwood (Fr.)
Reagan Coyle, Loyola (Soph.)
David Favrot, Byrd (Sr.)
Peyton Fulghum, Evangel (So.)
Trenton Lape, Parkway (Jr.)
Kennon Lauterbach, Benton (Jr.)
Chan Lytle, Haughton (Sr.)
Mason Morgan, Airline (Jr.)
Davin Watkins, Southwood (Sr.)
Carter White, Airline (Soph.)