Hunter Lemley shines for Bombers

It was a good summer for Crestview senior baseball player Hunter Lemley.

The Bulldog pitcher was invited to tryout for the elite Bama Bombers travel team, and making the team was only a start of great things.

He went on to post a 6-0 record, striking out 36 batters in 30 innings pitched, while recording a 2.10 earned run average. To top things off he threw the first no-hitter of his career.

Lemley is hoping to turn the good summer into a successful final high school campaign as the Bulldogs look to rebound from a disappointing 2009 season.

“It helped me a lot,” he said. “I played against kids that are already going to DI (Division I) colleges and kids at that level all summer. And then playing in the district (2-5A) that we (the Bulldogs) play in it doesn’t get any easier.”

The Bombers are not your typical summer travel team.

Bomber players fill the rosters of college and university baseball teams from across the Southeast, and several former Bombers have gone on to the professional ranks.

Earlier this year five former Bombers were selected in the Major League Baseball draft, with Kentrail Davis being the 39th overall pick by the Milwaukee Brewers.

The screening process players go through require that players have the right stuff on and off the field.

And the coaching is second-to-none as coaches from some of the top small colleges in the country call the shots.
“We found out this was very exclusive,” Lemley’s father, Mike Lemley said. “This wasn’t, ‘Hey I can play for these guys.’ You had to be recognized be either a coach or a scout of some sort.

“Last summer Hunter was invited to a showcase up at Alabama Southern (Community College) in Monroeville, to kind of showcase his skills. There were a bunch of coaches up there, and one in particular was Tyler Strout, who was the pitching coach at Birmingham Southern University, who noticed Hunter and gave him a good recommendation and we talked.”

It was Strout, who was the pitching coach for the Bombers, that recommended the Bombers give Hunter a look.

“Tyler Strout knew they needed another right-handed pitcher and they were closing their roster so he invited Hunter to come and try out,” Mike Lemley said. “We went up there and there were probably about 20 kids there and he was one of two that got an invitation.“The guy that runs the organization, Mr. Greg Legg, handed him the invitation and said, ‘We’d love to have him.’ That’s kind of how it got started.”

The senior team Lemley played on was mostly made up of 2010 high school grads, but there were a couple of younger players on the squad. There also is a scout team that was mostly 2009 and 2010 grads. The Bombers also have a junior team that is made up of players that will graduate from high school in 2011 or 2012.
Lemley isn’t the first Bulldog to play for the Bombers. David Pyle, a 2009 CHS grad who now plays for Northwest Florida State was on the Bombers senior team last year and was a member the Bombers scout team this summer.

A.J. Gomez, Michael Wells, Robby Campbell, Christopher Krenek and Robert Price of Niceville also were on the scout roster.

Most of the Niceville players will be on the Eagles roster next spring and Lemley is hoping he can use what he learned about them to his advantage.

“I learned a lot about some of the guys I played with (from other schools in the area) that will help a lot.” Hunter said.

The Bombers played a 40-game schedule at some of the top college baseball venues in the South with tournaments at Mississippi State, Alabama, Auburn and Troy, just to name a few places they played.

Lemley, a big Alabama fan, was thrilled at the opportunity to play in Tuscaloosa, but said Ron Polk Stadium on the Mississippi State campus might have been the most impressive place he played.

Mike Lemley praised Crestview coach Tim Gillis for helping Hunter develop the skills needed to play for the Bombers.

“I trust Tim and his tutelage and for really developing him (Hunter),” Mike Lemley said. “And the tools that he gave him (Hunter) are absolutely (great). You can’t measure them enough.

“I don’t think he could have done that without that base that Tim gave him.”

It’s not surprising that Hunter Lemley’s best memory of the summer was his no-hitter.

And of course he received great coaching that will help him where ever his baseball journey might lead.
But perhaps the greatest thing he will take from his summer with the Bombers is a confidence he never had before.

“I found out that I could actually go and compete against guys that good,” he said. “I had played against great players before, but doing it all summer and every game, I found out that I can do it and I kind of wondered a little bit.

“I found out I could do it and I am that good.”