By CHRISTINE BOATWRIGHT / Staff Writer

VINCENT – Alumni baseball players came from all parts of the South Feb. 19 as Vincent High School held its first alumni baseball game.

Vincent baseball assistant coach Todd Davis wanted to create a fundraiser that would benefit not only his baseball program, but also strengthen the ties within the community.

“Vincent is a proud community. Athletically, we’ve always been successful in baseball,” Davis said. “A lot of people who came back for the game want to support the program. I’ve been here for several years, and may have not included them (in the past), but I want them to feel the support of the program.”

Fifty-four alumni baseball players came home from Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee to join the double-header Saturday morning, with many more supporting their former teammates. Chris Garrett, from the graduating class of 1999, drove from Louisiana to play in the game.

“(The alumni who didn’t play) said they’d come out for next year’s event. We played two games,” Garrett said. “It was perfect weather. It was a pretty evenly matched game.”

The Vincent Gold team won the first game 11-6, but the Vincent Black team won the second 7-6.

“It was pretty intense, a lot of trash talk,” Garrett said.

The games were a fundraiser for Vincent’s baseball team, and brought in over $2,000.

“We put this together as a fundraiser,” Davis said. “In the past, we had done a bake sale at Christmas. For the last 5 years, we basically haven’t had a fundraiser. We came up with this idea, and it became bigger than I expected.

“I kept saying I never imagined it being this big the first year,” Davis said.

“We’re already planning for next year’s event. We’d like to make it a 2-day event next year,” he said. “We want to have some activities Friday night and another double-header and dinner Saturday.”

The ages of the alumni varied from recent high school graduates to men who played Vincent baseball in the 60s.

“The biggest testament was Gary Garrett, who graduated in 1961,” Davis said. “He coaches at a college in Florida, and he drove up. He’s at least 67 years old. He pitched the first four innings of the game.

“Just to see the older guys of the 60s on the same team as the kids I coached last year graduated, it was a good sight,” Davis said.