By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
A team that prides itself on pitching and defense found its offense lacking at times last spring.
The Neosho baseball team went 11-16 but suffered a number of close losses. The Wildcats lost five games by one run and two more by two runs. They were 8-5 in the middle of April before losing 10 of their next 11.
“We did a really good job of playing sound defense and our pitching was pretty solid as well,” head coach Danny Powers said. “We had guys like Jared Stephens and Mason Ray who would go out and throw five or six innings and give up two or three runs max and we did a good job of executing and playing behind them. What hurt us was a lot of times late in games we didn’t do a good job with guys in scoring position. We had a lot of guys on base all year unfortunately we weren’t quite able to get them in.”
Powers hopes Neosho takes the next step offensively this season but the team must first replace six starters who graduated.
The Wildcats lost a pair of All-Conference honorees in Stephens, a first team Central Ozark Conference pitcher and Tre’Von Letts, a second team COC outfielder. Stephens went 7-2 on the mound with a 2.33 ERA and is now playing at State Fair Community College and Letts batted .304 with 10 extra-base hits, 14 RBI’s and 10 stolen bases. He’s playing football at Central Missouri.
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Ray also graduated after going 2-0 on the mound with a 1.56 ERA and batting .292. The Wildcats also lose players like Cole Seward who batted .286 and stole 14 bases, AC Marion, who drove in 17 runs and is now at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M and Brett Cook, who drove in 14 runs and hit two homers; he’s playing at Northwest Missouri.
Of the three returning starters and five returning lettermen, all are seniors.
Wes Durman started at shortstop and also pitched some. He batted .296 with 11 RBI’s and 10 stolen bases while serving as the leadoff hitter.
“We expect him to pitch quite a bit more this year,” Powers said.
Gage Kelley started in center field and went 2-1 on the mound as the team’s No. 3 or 4 starter. He was a .258 hitter.
Kaden Dickens is the third returning starter; he played a utility role last year and will probably play in the outfield this year. He batted. 256 with three doubles.
The two others who lettered were Wyatt Keplar and Nakota Bach. Bach saw time in the outfield and at catcher and Keplar, a left hander, played in the outfield and pitched to a 3.2 ERA.
“We also had a lot of guys that are going to be juniors kind of step in and play a little bit of varsity last year like Brett Slavens, Ryan Cargile and Jose Ortega,” Powers said.
Slavens will compete for a spot on the mound and on the infield, Cargile could see time as a catcher, pitcher or corner infielder and Ortega could play at third or DH. Junior Lane Ebbingaus could also see time at second base and sophomore Lane Yost could pitch and play in the outfield.
“I don’t think it’s going to be a completely rebuilding season, we just happened to be a little senior dominant last year and those guys beat out some juniors and underclassmen,” Powers said. “A lot of different guys got work last year and we did a good job of sticking together in the summer and playing a lot of baseball. These guys are going to be excited to be everyday starters and show what they can do.”
Powers said the biggest question mark is who will be behind the plate. The person he thought would be there moved to another school district so Powers is waiting to see who steps up and earns the starting spot. Bach and Cargile should be in the running.
“On the mound we have a lot of guys that compete well and throw a lot of strikes, we’ve just been pretty lucky in the past we’ve always had at least one guy we know has the potential to strike out 12 to 15 guys a night and right now hopefully we have some guys who can develop into that,” Power said. “It’s one area we’re going to have to really focus on, throwing strikes, attacking hitters and our defensive play.”
That defensive play should again be a strength. Powers said several Wildcats pride themselves on making all the routine plays and some have the talent to make outstanding plays.
“I think the middle infield is going to be one of the best in our league,” he said. “Gage Kelley is definitely one of the top defensive center fielders in our conference. We have athletic guys where we need them defensively and those guys can also run really well, too. I think we’ll be a scrappy team, throw strikes and play good defense and scratch and claw to get enough runs to come out with some victories.”
