Security Federal Athlete of the Week: March 27 - April 2

Partnering with Security Federal, the Warren County Sports Authority will honor a standout local athlete each week. The WCSA and the Friendliest Bank in Town love seeing great athletic achievement and there are plenty to pick from every week in Warren County. From winter to summer, spring to fall, and on courts, fields, diamonds, dance floors and anywhere else an athlete can succeed, Security Federal and the Sports Authority are going to be on the lookout for the best of the best!

Pioneer P/SS Layne Roberts

Experience wasn’t something the Pioneers were going to be able to rely on this year, but one senior knew what it took to be a championship squad. Layne Roberts was the District 6AAA pitcher of the year during Warren County’s championship run last year and he’s already making a case to claim more hardware this spring.

Roberts was a big part of the Pioneers winning three games last week, including a pivotal 5-4 battle against Coffee County Monday. The senior threw a complete game against the Red Raiders to pull of the victory at home, including escaping a bases-loaded jam in the seventh with his patented breaking ball.

Coffee County was threatening to hand the Pioneers another crushing loss at home when it loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh in a one-run game, but Roberts wasn’t going to falter in the clutch. The senior, who now has seven wins in 11 career starts, decided the game with a knee-buckling curveball, one that left Coffee County’s batter helpless at the plate with the game on the line.

“I knew (what pitch I was going to throw). I was pretty confident and knew it was going to be the game-ending pitch,” said Roberts after the game Monday. “I knew it was going to be my last batter, so I gave it everything I had. I did what I had to do to get our team out of that situation and get the win.”

Roberts was also big at the plate against Coffee County, hitting a two-out, two-run double to give the team the lead early in the contest. His hitting was again on display over the weekend when the Pioneers took two from White County.

The team’s lead-off hitter, a new role for Roberts this season after getting just nine at-bats as a junior, had three hits and three RBIs against the Warriors, including hitting his team’s first home run this year. Roberts went deep in Sparta Saturday, turning on a pitch and flying it over the right-field wall for his first career round tripper.

Brent Carden captured Roberts’ stroll around the bases, along with the reaction from the dugout, and posted it on his Facebook page:

Roberts is excelling in his role atop the Pioneer order, hitting .341 with eight RBIs and a team-high 12 runs scored this season. He will be back on the field Monday night at Patrick Ramsey Field when Warren County takes on Franklin County in another District 6-4A matchup. Both the Rebels and Pioneers enter the contest tied atop the standings with 2-2 records.

The two teams are set to play in Winchester Tuesday as well. Both games will begin at 6 p.m. Check the WCSA website and social media pages for the latest information on Pioneer baseball.