Warriors coach inspires and motivates

By Greg Brill - sports@nvdaily.com

STEPHENS CITY -- Blake Adams remembers well the look he and his Sherando teammates got from baseball coach Pepper Martin following an 8-3 loss April 6 at James Wood.

The Warriors had just dropped a third-straight Northwestern District game and were quickly slipping in the league standings when Martin gathered the team in one corner of the outfield.

"I can't recall what he said in his speech but it really fueled us for the remainder of the season," Adams said. "We knew we could play better than that, and it helped push us every day in practice."

Two days after their loss to the Colonels, the Warriors beat another Frederick County rival, Millbrook, by a run at home and took off from there. Overall, Sherando reeled off 10 straight wins to close the regular season and earned a share of the Northwestern District title with Brentsville.

Sherando also gained a trip to the Region II tournament for the first time since 2006 and finished with 19 wins, the second most in program history.

For his ability to get the Warriors back on the right path, Martin is The Northern Virginia Daily's Baseball Coach of the Year.

Sherando began the Northwestern part of its slate well with a 5-0 start. But a late-inning, 2-0 loss at Brentsville on March 30 got the Warriors into a funk. Their next district game saw Central score three runs in the bottom of the seventh to get a walk-off 4-3 win. Then, on a Monday night at R. Charles Hott Field, Sherando could not solve James Wood ace Matt Copley and went quietly.

Three losses in less than a week did not sit well with anyone in the Warriors' camp.
"A week like that can either help you or hurt you," said Nick Merchant, who was the Northwestern District Player of the Year. "I think we responded to how we needed to. We just learned from the mistakes we made and turned around the season, right there.
"He put a fire under us."

Martin said that top assistant and pitching coach Craig Bodenshatz assembled Sherando's three captains -- Merchant, Adams and Curry Clevenger -- to encourage everyone to give a little something extra.

The Warriors learned to play seven innings, winning five times by three runs or fewer during their 10-game win streak. A nearly two-week delay at the end of the season because of constant rain kept Sherando off the field, but when the Warriors returned they took must-win decisions over Central and James Wood to force a playoff with Brentsville for the top seed in the district tournament and an automatic regional berth.

"It was quite a turnaround, because we were finding ways to lose games instead of ways to win 'em," Martin said. "Then we started getting the shut-down inning by our pitchers late in the game with a one-run lead. We started getting the key hit with runners in scoring position when we were down by one [run] to go up by one. We [would make] an exceptional defensive play to keep our lead at one or two. That's what helped us win a lot of close games during that stretch."

Gaining the trust of his players has been a key component for Martin.

"Coach Bodenshatz and I both valued our seniors and their opinions on certain aspects of the team," Martin said. "As a coach, if you show respect to your players -- and both of us do that -- then you're going to get respect in return."

Many have come through to play for Martin, who gained his 200th win on May 12 at home with a 5-1 defeat of Central. Martin, who is 204-135 in 16 seasons at Sherando, is the last original coach left (he has also been the school's only wrestling coach) since Sherando opened its doors in the fall of 1993.

"Coach Martin, you can't ask for a better coach," said Adams, who was given responsibility near the top of the Warriors lineup early on and led the team in RBIs and was a first-team all-district pick at second base. "He's just a good guy all around. He's close to everyone on the team, and everyone on the team will listen to him if he asks them to do something. You just have a lot of respect for him."

Merchant has played four years for Martin and knows his coach as well as any player. He, too, will miss all the times he spent talking and learning the game through Martin.

"Sherando's been my home away from home and he's been like a dad, somewhat, to me," Merchant said of Martin. "He's always been looking out for me in school and on the field. He treated me fairly and that's all you can ask from a coach."

From letting Bodenshatz groom a pitching staff that included seven-game winners Merchant and James Harrelson, and freshman Tre Porter (3-0), to giving tips to help Derek Reid, Jason Tunison and Clevenger (.296) become better hitters and earn all-district selections, Martin pushed the right buttons when it mattered.

The Warriors returned to their renovated field this season and won all 13 games they played there. That included a 7-2 win over Broad Run in the Region II quarterfinals round. A 4-3 loss at Orange County in its next game ended Sherando's season at 19-7, and one win shy of advancing to the Group AA state tournament for the second time in program history.

"He got us ready for every game," Merchant said of Martin. "He taught us how to be men."