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SportsMarch 23, 2023

It remains to be seen as to whether or not the Neelyville High School baseball squad will get to play its road game at East Carter today (4:30 p.m.) due to the prediction of heavy rain throughout the region. However, it is becoming seemingly obvious that only Mother Nature is capable of slowing the senior season of Tiger standout Austin Sheppard.

Neelyville High School senior pitcher Austin Sheppard prepares to throw against Bernie recently at Bernie High School.
Neelyville High School senior pitcher Austin Sheppard prepares to throw against Bernie recently at Bernie High School.Tom Davis ~ Tdavis@semoball.com

It remains to be seen as to whether or not the Neelyville High School baseball squad will get to play its road game at East Carter today (4:30 p.m.) due to the prediction of heavy rain throughout the region. However, it is becoming seemingly obvious that only Mother Nature is capable of slowing the senior season of Tiger standout Austin Sheppard.

“He is our program,” first-year Tiger coach Gary Dubar said of Sheppard recently.

Neelyville has opened this spring with three wins in four games, the latest being a come-from-behind 11-10 victory over Bernie at Bernie, which was the program’s first over the Mules in 10 seasons. There are several reasons for this success, but none bigger than the fact that Sheppard has prepared himself to lead the Tigers this spring, according to Dubar.

“Austin is everything that I would ever strive to have a player be,” Dubar said. “He works harder than everybody else (and) he never misses anything.

“He shows up all the time.”

Including through the winter months, when a lot of people aren’t even thinking about baseball.

Sheppard spent this off-season training diligently, so when Dubar asked him to throw 107 pitches over 5 2/3 innings against the offensive-centric Mules, it wasn’t an issue.

“He stayed on the mound all winter,” Dubar said, “so he is in shape. We didn’t have to worry about him going (107 pitches).”

Sheppard worked tirelessly through the fall baseball season and in the winter months, not only throwing but also in the weight room, which has been obvious early.

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“He’s never hit a home run in his life,” Dubar said, “and we’re sitting at two already.”

Sheppard kept Neelyville in the game long enough against Bernie for classmate Preston Goodnight to hit a seventh-inning home run to win the game, but his offense was just as impressive.

Sheppard had three hits against the Mules to go with his three runs, two RBI, and a walk.

In an earlier win over Gideon, he scored a couple of runs off one hit and drove in a run.

“It’s a big deal for him,” Dubar said of Sheppard’s senior season. “It’s a big deal for us. When he goes, we go. He is our horse on the mound. He’s our everything and has played well for us.”

Following a three-win season in 2019, the Tiger program has bounced back in recent springs.

Neelyville has won 21 games over the past two seasons and is clicking early this year.

“We hit (the ball) a lot,” Dubar said of his team. “We hit it pretty well. We don’t field it very well, but we hit it pretty well. And we have a lot of pitching, which keeps us in ball games.”

Neelyville did commit four errors against Bernie, but with an offense that has scored at least 10 runs in each of its past three games, that makes up for some of those miscues.

“We’ve worked on our hitting all fall and all winter,” Dubar said, “so, it is really helping out.”

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