Finally, the basketball season has ended and the boys, and girls of summer have made their way to the diamond for their season in the sun.

OK, that's enough of the clich\u00E9's about baseball and softball.

It's the end of February and baseball is in the air. You can tell it on all levels. Registration has ended for youth leagues and their tryouts are slated to start here in a couple of weeks. The high schools are getting underway.

Greenville High is underway big time with four straight wins. Did you know that in three games the Greenville Tigers have scored a combined 47 runs?

It pushes ahead to 53 if you count their performance Tuesday night against 1A Brantley. On the other side of the coin, the Tigers have only given up a handful of runs, two to be exact. Brantley got one and then Georgiana scrounged one out of the second half of the team's doubleheader.

Speaking of the Panthers, they started the season with a victory over Hillcrest Evergreen two nights ago. They played till it got dark and had to stop.

That's old school right there.

The Panthers have the potential to make some noise this year. Friday night in the second game, Stewart Crittendon showed that with one swing of the bat he can make something happen when he snatched a pitch to the left field fence. Get those boys on the 2A level playing some 2A competition and they are going to be dangerous. They have to be, in their area they have Flomaton, Red Level and Excel. While Excel is tough in nearly all sports, well maybe not bowling, they, well, excel in baseball.

The Panthers are going to have their hands full when the old gold and black Panthers make their way to town.

When area play rolls around for Greenville, their opponents aren't going to be a cake-walk either. They will take the field against the defending 5A state champion Charles Henderson Trojans. Granted this team is a watered down version of last year's Men of Troy but still they return a lot of the pop that last year's team had. Maybe not the experience, but the love of the game is still there.

Greenville will also play Eufaula and Carroll. These two teams are consistently tough. Carroll was ranked last year in the 5A top 10, until they played Charles Henderson and Eufaula is always on the verge of making something happen.

This year's baseball season should be a fun one to watch.

It's that simple.

Griffin Pritchard is the sports editor of the Greenville Advocate. He can be reached by email at griffin.pritchard@greenvilleadvocate.com or via phone at 382-3111 ext. 122.