(Oakland, IA) — Riverside Baseball Head Coach Cole Chapin believes his record did not reflect how well his team played this past season. The Bulldogs finished 2024 with an 8-14 overall record, 5-11 in the Western Iowa Conference with only IKM Manning and Audubon below them in the standings.
Riverside was just 1-5 in close games (2 runs or less) and lost 12 of 14 games at the start of June. Chapin used just about his entire roster as pitchers — 11 different players took the mound for the Bulldogs. Chapin said it was by design
Seniors Kaeden Pleas (2-5, 6.21 ERA) and Garrett Hough (2-0, 6.15 ERA) had the majority of the starts this season and Chapin looks to use a by committee approach next year as well. Freshman Victor Alfonso (2-1, 3.05 ERA in 8 games and 1 start) has shown some promise.
Riverside loses 6 total seniors including Grady Jepperson who led the team with a .435 average with 1 HR and 11 RBI. Somebody will need to step up from a group of 3 Juniors and a bunch of Freshman to produce runs. The team only hit .251 this season but Chapin uses other ways to judge production
Chapin believes his team were in a lot of games this past season, it was just a mistake or two that would prove costly
Complete interview with Cole Chapin