(Guthrie Center) One senior and four juniors will lead the ACGC baseball team this summer.
Head coach Taylor Morris says they have nearly 30 players out for baseball and with no junior high baseball season taking place, more 8th graders will be pulled up to the high school ranks. Coach Morris feels last year they laid a good foundation for the future. “We lost six seniors who helped build what we want to do here. We picked it up at the end of the year and started playing good baseball.”
The team went 5-23 last season, but won three of their last four regular season games. “We have to take that next step. We can’t be complacent with what we did last year at the end of the year. Hopefully that leads us into a stronger year than what we had last year.”
Bryce Littler is the only senior this season and can help the team at the plate and on the mound. “Towards the back half of last season he was one of our hottest hitters so I look for him to continue that. He had an elbow issue that he had fixed during football so I’m hoping he can get on the mound a little bit more, because he’ll be a real bright spot for us.”
Eli Kading projects to be an important part of the pitching rotation. “He’s got a live arm and big frame on him. If we hone in the strike zone he’ll be a big pitcher for us.”
Clayton Wardyn also returns on the hill. “He took a few steps forward last year and won some big games for us. He exudes confidence on the mound and that’s what you need as a pitcher. I always tell the guys you need to have a bulldog mentality because it’s you vs the batter and you want to beat that batter every time.”
In addition to Littler, coach Morris lists Newell Rogers and Reid Rumelhart as guys who could really help at the plate. ACGC travels to Woodward-Granger for their first game on June 15th.
