Kilgore baseball alumni game quite a hit
HIGH SCHOOL BASEBALL
By MITCH LUCAS sports@kilgorenewsherald.com

THEY CAN STILL BRING IT - Members of the 1972 Kilgore High School baseball team, a team that made it to the state tournament, took the field again together on Saturday, as KHS welcomed back former players for an alumni game against current Diamond 'Dogs. Pictured are Roger Welch, Cary Dukes, Dale Hedrick, Terry Thrower, Danny Patterson, Don Hedrick and one of their coaches, Royce Shipp.

Hey, the old guys can still go!

The current Kilgore High School baseball team, coached now by Jeff Blackstone, Ronnie Hendrix and Ronnie Lee Garvin, got a chance to see their most successful predecessors on Saturday, as the Bulldogs hosted an alumni game.

Some of the best players that ever suited up for the Diamond 'Dogs took part in the contest, including more recent alumni, like Chase Patterson, Clint Toon, Chad Loper and Andrew Terrell, and maybe the school's most famous baseball royalty: members of the 1972 team that reached the state tournament.

The game was really just for fun, and to give the current version of the 'Dogs a good workout. It worked, as a few hundred people turned out for the contest. The 1972 team was joined by one of their coaches, Royce Shipp, and scored a run in the second inning. Danny Patterson pitched for the '72 squad; Don Hedrick played first base; Terry Thrower played second; Cary Dukes, who got a double to score that run, played short; Dale Hedrick played third; and Roger Welch played center field.

The Bulldogs, who have had a great deal of success in recent years, are about to embark on the 2008 season, their last for a while as a district rival with the Longviewarea schools.

Kilgore has one last scrimmage, a home game against Carthage here at Driller Park on Friday at 5 p.m., and then the games will begin to count. The Diamond 'Dogs will open the season - Blackstone's second as head coach - at Wills Point on Monday, a 6 p.m.

The Bulldogs will play in the annual Rose City Classic beginning Thursday, Feb. 21 in Tyler, along with John Tyler, Tyler Lee, Rockwall, Haughton, Nacogdoches, Shreveport (La.) Byrd, and Greenville. Kilgore will open the tournament at 11 a.m. Feb. 21 against Rockwall at University of Texas at Tyler Field, and continue the tournament throughout the weekend.

Kilgore's first "home" game of the regular season brings Bullard to Driller on Tuesday, Feb. 26, and then the Bulldogs host the annual Oil Belt Tournament, which will be played this year entirely at Driller Park. That runs Feb. 28 through March 1, and other teams in the tournament are Pine Tree, Lindale, Liberty Eylau, Rockwall Heath, Gilmer and Longview.

KHS opens the Oil Belt Tournament against Lindale on Thursday, Feb. 28.