Pinson Valley's Shane Chappell is the 2013 North Jefferson News Baseball Coach of the Year.

After the 2013 baseball season was over, the coaches from all of the Jefferson County Schools teams got together and named Garrett Suchey of Mortimer Jordan as their player of the year.

We couldn’t agree more.

The North Jefferson News Player of the Year did it all. He led the Blue Devils with five home runs, 22 doubles, a .678 slugging percentage, a whopping 59 RBIs, and was second in batting average. On the mound, his earned-run average of 1.38 with 62 strikeouts was tops on the staff.

Suchey’s squad made it into the second round of the Class 5A playoffs, but that’s where they ran into Pinson Valley and its pitching juggernaut. The Devils’ post-season run ended there, but the Indians went all the way to the state semifinals, where they fell at the hands of Hartselle.

The playoff effort prompted us to give NJN Coach of the Year honors to Pinson’s first-year skipper Shane Chappell, who led the Tribe to one of their best finishes ever. Two of his pitchers, Auburn-bound Bailey Chesser and JeffCo Pitcher of the Year Colby Wingard, both landed on our NJN All-Star Team, plus infielder Scott Falkinburg.

Suchey is joined on the team by fellow devils Devlin Hodges, as well as pitchers Wes Crawford and Orion Recke, each of whom won eight games.

Gardendale also placed three players on the list: pitchers Bryce Jay and Dalton Moore, and shortstop Chris Blakey.

The team is selected by sports editor Robert Carter, with input from local coaches.

2013 NJN BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

GARRETT SUCHEY

Senior, Mortimer Jordan

2013 NJN ALL-STAR BASEBALL TEAM

Pinson Valley

Bailey Chesser

Colby Wingard

Scott Falkinburg

Gardendale

Chris Blakey

Bryce Jay

Dalton Moore

Corner

Cody Gilbert

Blake Byrd

Hayden

Trent Dodson

Mortimer Jordan

Devlin Hodges

Orion Recke

Wes Crawford

Locust Fork

Jonathan Hayes

Fultondale

Nate Freeman