AISA BASEBALL: Carr, Autauga Academy look to finish rebuilding job with championship

Bobby Carr built the Generals of Autauga Academy from scratch and has them in the state championship series against Edgewood Academy. (Tim Gayle)

By TIM GAYLE

When new baseball coach Bobby Carr glanced around the players assembled for the first day of practice at Autauga Academy, it didn’t take long to count the returning starters.

“I think we had one returning starter and that was me,” sophomore Noah Ray said. “Definitely a whole new team, no doubt. We had to learn our teammates and trust each other. I think it’s all trust. All season, everybody doubted us. We just believed, gave it all we’ve got and just continued to fight.”

Carr has certainly built teams from scratch, something he was familiar with in his five years at New Life Academy in the late 1990s. He’s also contended for championships, something that was an annual ritual in 15 years at Edgewood Academy, a tenure that included 11 state championships. 

But after four years as the football coach at Autauga, taking over a baseball program with one returning starter -- especially in the wake of a disastrous football season at the school that included little depth and less experience -- and guiding a group of overachievers to the state AA baseball finals certainly ranks at the top of his coaching accomplishments. 

“This is as much fun as I’ve ever had being a baseball coach,” Carr said moments after clinching a berth in the finals with a semifinals win at Macon East. “I got a little emotional out there (talking to the players). They brought a lot of joy back into my life. And I needed it.

“They’re a fun group and I think a lot of clubs and organizations, companies and businesses can learn a lot from our ball team. They play unselfish, they play together and nobody cares who gets the credit.”

He wasn’t sure what he had at the beginning of the season. Former coach Scott Tubbs had taken the job at Holtville and Carr, a no-nonsense coach and a stickler for fundamentally sound baseball, took over a team that had little experience and a ton of underclassmen, an indication that the team’s best days were in the future. 

“It’s definitely different from the coach I had last year,” Ray said. “But I had him in football so I know his tolerance, what he can take and what he can’t take. It was a little bit of a change, but I’d say we got used to him pretty quick.”

The players quickly learned that Carr was more tolerant of players who showed effort and less tolerant of those who persisted in making mental errors.

“We had a pile of seniors leave last year,” Carr said. “Noah Ray is the only returning starter off of last year’s team and he was the starting catcher as a freshman. Now, he’s playing shortstop and we’ve got a freshman at catcher.”

The team’s youth is evident in its up-and-down play, but the Generals caught fire in early March and beat Hooper and Lowndes in a tournament in Lowndesboro before losing in the finals to Escambia 7-6.

“I saw us earlier this year at a tournament at Lowndes where we really got hot and made it to the championship but ran out of pitching,” Carr said. “I said, ‘You know what, guys? We can get this done this year. We’ve got enough on this team to get this done.’”

A 2-1 win in the third game of the AA quarterfinals at Patrician was followed a week later by a 3-0 win in the third game of the AA semifinals at Macon East. Suddenly, the future is now. Autauga is in the finals against Edgewood, an area rival that the Generals split a doubleheader with before losing the third and deciding game.  

Now, there’s another best-of-three series with the Wildcats that has a little more at stake.

“We’ve played them a couple of times so we know what they have,” Ray said. “We’re going to be confident. That’s one of our main things. We come into the games confident. We learned that usually every game, if we do that, we come out on top.”

2021 AISA STATE BASEBALL TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIPS

Paterson Field

Tuesday

CLASS A

Pickens Academy vs. Jackson Academy (DH), 10 a.m. (Game 3, if necessary, will be played on Wednesday)

CLASS AA

Autauga Academy vs. Edgewood Academy (DH), 3 p.m. (Game 3 if necessary, will be played on Wednesday)

Wednesday

CLASS AAA

Bessemer Academy vs. Pike Liberal Arts School (DH), 10 a.m. (Game 3, if necessary, will be played on Thursday)