Baseball off and running

When baseball schedules starting rolling in to us at The Times, opening day looked to have some pretty stout matchups.

In reality, it did.

Captain Shreve's 8-2 victory over Benton was closer than it the final score indicated. Alex Garcia and Jamie Gilley traded hard fastballs and crisp breaking pitches before Shreve broke through against Benton's bullpen.

Calvary's Randy Zeigler, meanwhile, just does what he does. Zeigler beat Lufkin, Texas, with his arm and hit two home runs in the Cavaliers' 4-2 win.

The revelation from what I saw in the Shreve-Benton matchup was Casey Elkins.

I've seen a lot of baseball -- from high school to the big leagues -- and Elkins, for a high schooler, has one of the best cut fastballs you will see.

Shreve coach Todd Sharp called him a "mini Mariano Rivera" after Elkins threw two perfect innings Monday. I don't know if I'd go that far, but I do believe you'd be hard pressed to find as good a cutter as Elkins flashed Monday.