BAY MINETTE, Ala. —The fall season has always been an important time for longtime Faulkner State Community College head baseball coach Wayne Larker.

Larker has always stressed that the fall season is used to find out how his players, especially first year players, react to game type situations.

“We have 53 players out for the team this fall and cuts will be made in November,” Larker said recently. “We are playing a series of squad games - 25 of them - and some games against other opponents (18).”

Although score is kept in the games, Larker says the games against other opponents are really just glorified scrimmages where 1st and 2nd string teams both get to play.

“The scores do not truly represent the success of a team due to the wide variety of competition. Pitchers in these games only pitch one or two innings and are rotated. After playing a number of games, both squad games and scrimmages against other schools, we have singled out the better players,” the veteran skipper added.

Larker added that the fall is used to evaluate the tryout candidates and pick the team for the spring season.

“We have 19 players from last season trying out this fall with ten of those being pitchers," Larker said. “The other 34 players are newcomers. We will field an inexperienced team for 2014 as only one of the returning position players held a starting position in 2013.”

Larker does see possible good things from the pitching staff, however.

“The pitching staff should be experienced as seven of the staff pitched significant innings last year,” the coach said.

Several players have caught the eye of the Sun Chief head coach.

“Christian Snow has hit the ball well. (Derek) Lovelace and (JT) Peddrick have both played well while freshman shortstop Caleb Lopes has played great defense for us.”

Snow is a 6-5, 228-pound freshman infielder from McIntosh while Lovelace is a sophomore infielder from Mobile and Peddrick is a sophomore outfielder from Foley. Lopes hails from Mobile.

“(Garrett) Waters, (Austin) Crook, and (David) Mosley have all looked good on the mound.”

Waters is a soph from Theodore, Crook is a sophomore from Ft. Deposit, Alabama, and Mosley is a soph from Grand Bay.

Peddrick is one of seven Baldwin Countians on the Sun Chief roster. He is joined by a trio that list Bay Minette as their hometown - Mason Brooks, Jake Swearingen, and Kyle Buck. Former Spanish Fort pitcher Heith Brown is also on the roster as are former Fairhope players Dylan Thomas and Brock Gilheart.

Faulkner finished 41-11 overall last spring with a 27-3 conference record. Larker and crew are 7-0 in exhibition games with several road games still remaining. They finish their home schedule at Stan James Field in Bay Minette on Oct. 23 at 2 p.m. against Pensacola St.