By Kyle Coppola
Umatilla High Senior Logan Bowling Dominates On The Mound
Logan Bowling who is a senior pitcher for the Umatilla High School Bulldogs has one of the lowest ERAs (Earned Run Averages) in Lake County. Through just five games this season the pitchers for Umatilla High have been amazing especially Bowling who has been on point to begin the 2024 season with a 0.64 ERA through 11 innings of work. Those are terrific numbers.
Bowling has faced 46 batters and has 14 strikeouts. He has only given up 9 hits and 1 earned run all season thus far. His play has been terrific. Head coach Tanner Clark was very upbeat about the team’s pitching this season. “Yeah, Logan Bowling is a tremendous asset to have on our team. He works incredibly hard along with Wyatt Strawbridge, Kevin St. Amant, and all our guys who make sure the work is being done on the mound to let our guys go to work at the plate,” says Coach Clark.
The Umatilla Bulldogs are off to a great start this year, and Logan Bowling has been a huge reason why. As the star quarterback on the football team, Bowling has also been equally impressive on the mound during his career.
Bowling is ranked 4th in Class 3A District 9 in strikeouts. He is getting an incredible amount of support from his team. Umatilla has outscored their opponents 45-9 in the first few weeks of the season. They have a 5-0 record headed into a home and away series with Ocoee this week.
“Our guys are like family. They play with such pride to represent Umatilla High, and you can feel it with this group. That goes for all our athletics programs with our Athletic Director Patrick Todd and Principal Frazier getting Umatilla back to prominence both athletically and academically. I love my job, and I love these kids,” says Coach Tanner Clark.
As for Bowling, it will be interesting to see how Umatilla stacks up against teams like Ocoee and The Villages. The Ocoee games are this week, and then The Villages games will be coming up in a few weeks’ time. That should give a true indicator of where this team is.
Kyle Coppola was born in Newton, Massachusetts and received his Bachelor of Fine Arts in Communications from Curry College in 2016. After traveling to Florida on a family vacation, he decided he could not get enough of the warm weather and made the move from snowy Massachusetts to central Florida 8 years ago.
For the last decade Kyle has gained valuable experience in social media content creation, marketing and sales, writing, video production, sports announcing and even broadcasting for local radio stations, such as FM 102.9 in The Villages and FM 91.5 in Massachusetts. Every year he volunteers at The Villages Charter High School as a play-by-play sports announcer for the football games as well as a public address announcer for the basketball games, including the annual Battle at The Villages Tournament.
Outside the office Kyle is a husband and father to two beautiful girls along with their cat. In his spare time he likes to spend time with his family, travel, play golf and swim. He is also a huge sports junkie and even bigger motorsports fan and loves to attend racing events when he can.
