The 2024 Georgia high school baseball season is quickly approaching and, as usual, excitement is abound throughout the state. Players and coaches have been working in preparation for the upcoming season and, as is the case each year, there are some very talented players and teams across Georgia.

Teams across the state have goals and aspirations to finish their seasons in mid-May inside one of Coolray Field, AdventHealth Stadium, or JI Clements Stadium at Georgia Southern University. We hope to familiarize our readers with many of the teams across the state as we preview individual teams across Georgia. We will take you right up to first pitch this season with these team previews, eventually releasing our Preseason Power 25 rankings that’ll carry us into the opening week of action.

Please keep checking back throughout the season as we will be your one-stop shop for everything related to high school baseball across the state. Each week we will be releasing our Players of the Week and updating the Power 25 rankings.

Our 2024 preseason coverage continues today.

High School: Long County Blue Tide
Head Coach: James Hobbs
Classification: 3A
2023 Record (Finish): 20-10 (Lost in First Round)
Team X Handle: @LongBaseball1
No. of Returning Position Players: 12
No. of Returning Pitchers: 7

 

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TOP SENIORS

• OF/RHP Landon Runyon
• RHP/3B Jamison Thomas
• 2B Shannon Filkens

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TOP JUNIORS

• RHP/SS Nick Sizemore
• RHP/C Kenny Pickens

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TOP UNDERCLASS FOLLOWS

• '26 INF/RHP Dylan Lester
• '26 C/RHP Peyton Batt

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TEAM OUTLOOK

The Blue Tide will look to better their 20-10 record and get deep into the playoffs in 2024. They return 12 position players and 7 pitchers. All 3 starting arms will be returning in Landon Runyon, Kenny Pickens, and Jamison Thomas. Runyon has had his fastball getting into the low 90's and Thomas is not too far behind him in the upper 80's. Pickens will be their everday catcher, and contribute a ton of innings when he is not behind the dish.  Shannon Filkins will look to lead the offense like he has the last couple of seasons. He will have the help of Nick Sizemore who has been the everyday shortshop since his freshman year, and be their go to guy in relief that will compete with anyone in the state. 
Dylan Lester and Peyton Batt will be 2 sophomores to keep an eye on. Coach Hobbs seems to have all the right pieces to better their 2023 season, and will be an exciting team to get out to see for the 2024 season. 

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Upcoming Events

SHOWCASE	DATE	LOCATION
South Georgia Preseason ID	January 6th, 2024	Coffee County High School
East Georgia Preseason ID	January 7th, 2024	IVSA Training
North Georgia Preseason ID	January 13th, 2024	Georgia Highlands College
Georgia Preseason All-State	January 14th, 2024	IVSA Training

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