Page 1C, 5-16-08
The LPD duo
BY TIM HAYES
Bristol Herald Courier
J.J. Kelly High School’s baseball team has lived up the hype that preceded the Indians back in March when the season began.
The Lonesome Pine District regular-season champions have compiled a 17-3 record, have a team batting average of .378 and a team ERA under three.
Then there are those two guys in the infield.
Shortstop Cody Bentley will range to his right or left, scoop up the ball and make a laser throw to first base. Sometimes, he has to dive in the dirt to make the tough play and other times he makes hard plays look routine.
Second baseman Matt Dotson can relate. He has a lot of range due to his speed — he leads the team in stolen bases with 14 — and his glove seems like a natural extension of his left hand at times.
Oh yeah, put the two together and you’ll get your share of perfectly-executed 6-4-3 and 4-6-3 double plays.
“We just want to field everything hit our way,” Dotson said. “We never want to let anything get through.”
Most of the time the ball doesn’t get through and that’s why Bentley and Dotson form one of the best infield tandems in Southwest Virginia.
“A lot of times it’s fun watching them in practice with some of the plays they actually come up with and make,” J.J. Kelly coach David Wyrick said. “They’ve made some ESPN highlight-type plays and it pumps them up.”
The slick-fielding duo have put together a long-running success story. They turned their first double play together while participating in youth leagues in Wise County and have been doing it ever since.
“We’ve always played up the middle, both of us together,” Dotson said. “It’s really nice playing with somebody as good as Cody.”
That continuity certainly helps.
“It feels really comfortable playing with somebody you grew up with,” Bentley said. “It helps to have somebody that brings out the best in you.”
The two are also interchangeable. Bentley was hampered by a shoulder injury for much of the 2007 season and made the move from shortstop to second base. Meanwhile, Dotson was a full-time starter at shortstop. Both were first-team picks on the All-Region D team.
Dotson fills in at shortstop these days when Bentley is pitching.
The duo are also two of Kelly’s top hitters. Dotson and Bentley both boast batting averages over .450 and both are on base more than 60 percent of the time.
“As they go, is usually how we go,” Wyrick said. “They are guys that get on base. They may be 0-for-2 but on base three times. They do a good job.”
They also want to make another deep postseason run for a program that has more state titles than any team in Southwest Virginia. The Indians won the Region D title last spring and advanced to the state semifinals at Radford University.
“We’re doing pretty good,” Bentley said. “We started slow, but we’re coming alive right now … We want to get back to where we were last year and finish what we started.”
It will help having two talented glove men occupying spots in the field.
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A look at the statistics of J.J. Kelly High School infielders Matt Dotson and Cody Bentley:
Cody Bentley: .475 batting average, 3 home runs, 21 RBIs, 9 stolen bases, 9 doubles; Also 5-0 with 3.78 ERA on the mound.
Matt Dotson: .451 batting average, 8 doubles, 7 RBIs, 30 runs, 14 stolen bases
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