(Oakland) Riverside is looking to get their baseball program on track and has a new, eager head coach to guide them. Former Treynor standout Cole Chapin spoke this week with KSOM/KS95.7 Sports for a glimpse at what’s ahead for the Bulldogs.
For the past couple of weeks people have been hinting at a new normal. The Riverside baseball team has gotten a little taste of what that feels like through their first two weeks of practice. “Everybody was kind of weary at first about how to act around one another and all of the sanitizing and social distancing, but that last about a half a practice. Not that they stopped doing those things, but they were right on board with it. We are still playing baseball. We are still catching, throwing, and hitting. Once we got through about 20 minutes of practice, that was the most normal I think any of us had felt for the past few months.”
Chapin says the 23-member roster is bigger than they anticipated. The team is starting from square one so to speak. Two years ago they only played a JV schedule and last season they went winless. Despite all that, there is some enthusiasm surrounding the program. “We’ve made it pretty clear that there are no solidified spots until the first game. They are motivated. They are showing up to practice every day ready to hit, field, and throw. Things are good.”
Coach Chapin takes a look at some of the key personnel returning. “We’re going to rely pretty heavily on our upperclassmen which is less than half the team. Wyatt Hough is a junior that will be throwing quite a bit. Jake Erickson will be playing all over the place and getting a lot of innings too. Those two led us in innings last year. Rhett Bentley is coming back too.”
Chapin says you can add Eddie Vlcek to that list of key upperclassmen. He looks for 3-4 freshmen to emerge and 3-4 8th graders to emerge with varsity playing time. As far as the younger guys go, he mentions Braydon Hill and Grady Jeppesen have stood out.
The Bulldogs host Audubon on Monday.
