It can be a chore to get most middle schoolers to focus on anything more than five feet from their face or five minutes in the future.

But that’s exactly why Boyle County Middle School baseball coach Kyle Bottoms wants his team to join up with the high school and promote a Strike Out Cancer game.

“That’s the whole reason we piggyback off the high school for this, is we try to start making them realize at a younger age that there are some things in life bigger than baseball, there are some things in life bigger than us individually,” Bottoms said.

The Eagles hosted rival Bate Middle School on Wednesday night in the special game. The Bulldogs rallied for a 15-10 win before stands packed with pink t-shirts promoting the night.

“The whole point of us doing this is to raise some awareness so our kids, the teams we play, the community realizes there are some things bigger than baseball,” Bottoms said.

The two high school rivals will come together Tuesday at Boyle for their Strike Out Cancer game. For Bottoms, facing the crosstown rival makes the game even more special and meaningful.

“It adds a little extra to it,” Bottoms said. “We right here in the same community, so a lot of these kids have grown up together. … To bring the community together before the game that has a lot of rivalry or conference or district or region implications and kind of realize, hey, we live here together, we’re one big community, that’s always an extra addition to this game.”

 

Follow Jeremy Schneider on Twitter @jschneideramn