By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
It culminated in a Class 3 District 13 championship, but 2019 was a season of ups and downs for the Lamar baseball team.
The Tigers won their first four games by a combined score of 56-9, then lost four of their next five. They were run-ruled by Joplin in the last game of the regular season. Then came the district tournament and some legendary moments and performances.
In the semifinals against Holden, Case Tucker – then just a sophomore – hit a two-run home run in the top of the eighth and Lamar won 5-3. The Tigers were forced to use senior Duncan Gepner to close it out on the mound, though. Head coach Thad Lundine had planned to start him in the championship.
And so Lundine turned to freshman Mason Gastel, the team’s starting center fielder who had only pitched in junior varsity games. He pitched an “incredible” five innings of two-run ball and Lamar earned a 6-3 win over El Dorado Springs.
Now two years later, with the Tigers seeking a third-straight district title appearance, they return at least eight players who have started a varsity game. Six of them were full-time starters.
“I look at our roster, we’ve got all kinds of experience,” Lundine said. “We actually have seven seniors on the team, a whole bunch of juniors and our sophomore class is probably our most athletic class.”
Senior Rylan Wooldridge returns at first base and pitcher; he started his entire sophomore season at first and batted .291 with 14 RBI. Junior Robert Lawrence was the freshman starter at third base; he scored 11 runs. Senior Cade Griffith started as a sophomore in the outfield and scored 14 runs with a .355 OBP. At catcher, junior Tucker Torbeck returns after starting late in his freshman season. He actually took over in the middle of the district semifinal game when the starting catcher was injured. He’s currently recovering from a wrist injury suffered during football. Senior Noah Osborne appeared in six games as a sophomore at second base and can also play at short. Junior Jimmy Hearod would have started last season and should be available sometime in early April after recovering from a knee injury.
The return of Tucker and Gastel also provides a huge boost. Both have started since they were freshmen.
Gastel, a center fielder, wasn’t even going to play baseball until the Sunday night before his freshman season. By the second day of practice Lundine said everybody knew he was going to be starting in center. Gastel drove in 10 runs and scored 11 while batting .255 with a .387 OBP. He earned first team all-district honors.
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Tucker, meanwhile, is a two time all-state honoree as an infielder and also earned first team all-district honors as a pitcher and infielder in 2019. He was a unanimous Big 8 West infielder and an honorable mention pitcher.
“He’s probably the best baseball player I’ve ever coached,” Lundine said.
“He can really play any position,” he said. “He’s played so much baseball and he’s got that baseball brain. If need be I could put him at every single position on the field and he’d know what to do. He’s just smooth with everything he does. His hitting is his strong point, not that fielding and pitching isn’t. He’s a kid nobody wants to pitch to. His sophomore year we ended up playing the same team twice. In that first game he hit back-to-back home runs and they never pitched to him the rest of the year.
“For us a big key will be how are the guys around him hitting this year?” Lundine said. “We’ve got to make them pitch to him this year. Can’t allow people to just put him on base.”
The shortstop batted .456 as a sophomore with nine extra base hits and three homers while leading the team in runs scored with 24. He pitched 41.1 innings and totaled 56 strikeouts. He also stole nine bases.
Cody O’Sullivan is a senior who looked good last summer and could earn a spot in the outfield. Sophomore Austin Wilkerson could vie for a starting spot after impressing early last spring. Sophomore Ty Willhite could join him in the starting lineup; both will see a lot of playing time.
Tucker will be the team’s top starting pitcher but after him there isn’t much experience back on the mound. Lundine thinks it’s a pretty deep pitching staff, though.
Baylee Wright will probably be the team’s No. 2 starter because of his experience, mostly at the JV level but he’s also got a few varsity games under his belt. He could also hold down a corner infield spot. Gastel looks like the team’s No. 3 starter to start the year but the big 6-foot-4 lefty could quickly move up.
Rilen Woods is a 6-5, 330-pound defensive tackle in the fall who’s committed to Pittsburg State. He’ll be an imposing presence, probably in relief, and offers one of the hardest sliders to hit that Lundine has seen.
“First time a kid sees it they’re just in awe,” he said.
The staff will also utilize Osborne, who excels in short outings; Lawrence, who hasn’t pitched a varsity game yet; and Stetson Wiss, who offers good control and a good breaking ball. Wiss also plays center field but might switch to the infield on the varsity roster.
Overall, Lundine said this is probably the deepest team he’s ever had.
“A lot of times in a smaller school you’ll have four, five, six really good ones then you get a drop off,” he said. “I don’t see a drop off. Maybe in experience but in abilities I don’t see a drop off. The kids have the ability to step on the field and do good things. With our success in other sports, we’ve got kids who may not have played a lot of varsity innings but a lot of downs of football in highly competitive situations, minutes in basketball games in highly competitive situations. Competition won’t bother our kids at all.
“I look at the roster and I love it,” he said. “At the same time I realize it’s a lot of unchecked commodities. Everybody’s in the same boat. It’s not like we’re the only school that didn’t get to play last spring.”
Lamar won’t play in a jamboree, instead opening with the Lamar Tiger Classic March 19-23. It’s the 15th year for the tournament. The Tigers will face a couple Kansas schools in Girard and Chanute and will once again end the regular season against Joplin.
