It was a big week for Cornersville senior baseball player Zach Richards. Along with helping to lead the Bulldogs to their first ever Class A State tournament appearance, Richards signed a letter of intent to play baseball at Martin Methodist College last Wednesday afternoon in the CHS auditorium.

A three-year starter at third base for Cornersville, Richards has provided the Bulldogs with steady play at the hot corner during that span and has evolved into one of the team's leaders.

Hard worker

"He brings a good work ethic and knows the game of baseball very well. Hopefully he'll be an example to the other incoming freshmen," said Martin Methodist coach Kelly Bratton. "Offensively, we hope he'll develop into a middle of the order hitter for us. It depends on how he adjusts to the college game. It's a big jump from single A baseball to facing 21 or 22 year old juniors and seniors."

Although Richards is not a vocal player on the field, he leads by example and is willing to go the extra mile at practice in order to be prepared for games.

"Zach has been a tremendous worker. He comes everyday ready to do whatever it takes to help the team," said Cornersville coach Ben Putman. "If I had a dollar for every time he's asked me to stay over so he could take extra batting practice or extra ground balls, I probably wouldn't be working. He does things the right way and is a great example to our younger guys."

Years of success

Richards has also been part of a successful four-year run for the Bulldogs, which has seen them accumulate a 63-53-1 record during that time. In 2010, the Bulldogs won the program's first ever regular season District title under former coach Brent Adcox while finishing the season with an 18-7 record.

Cornersville then claimed second place in the District 11-A tournament during the 2011 campaign en route to reaching the Region tourney for the second time in the program's history.

After coming in fourth in the conference in 2012, the Bulldogs finished second in the District standings for the 2013 regular season. CHS then won the program's first District tournament title before defeating Collinwood in the first round of the Region 6-A tournament. Following an 8-1 loss to Summertown in the Region championship game, Cornersville advanced to the State tournament by defeating county rival Forrest 4-1 in the Sectional round of the playoffs and currently holds a 19-14 record.

Reasons for Martin

Richards chose to continue his baseball career at Martin Methodist due to the close proximity of their campus and because of the recent success of the Red Hawk baseball team, which finished the 2013 season with a 38-19 record.

"It's close to home and they have a good program. They had a really good team this year and I'm looking forward to being part of their program," said Richards.

Zach is also a solid student and ended his CHS academic career with a 3.4 GPA.