By Dana Harding (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The 2022 spring campaign proved to be successful for Hartville baseball.
The 16-8 Eagles captured the program’s sixth district title in the past decade before falling to Springfield Catholic in the Class 3 sectional round.
This season, Hartville welcomes first-year head coach Bradey Welsh to the dugout.
An Eagle assistant in 2022 and former pitcher in the Atlanta Braves minor league system, Welsh has high hopes for his new squad.
“I am looking forward to seeing what this group will do, especially after losing some key parts from last year’s team,” Welsh said. “We will be young this season. We graduated five seniors last year, and four of them were starters.”
In addition to a talented group of graduated seniors, Hartville will be without the services of all-state honoree and Missouri State commit Brody McNeil, who transferred to Rogersville prior to the season.
While the Eagles will feature a young, new look roster with some question marks heading into the season, pitching won’t be one of them.
Dakota Stigall, Ethan McDaris, Hunter Delcour and Jalon Cryer all return with valuable varsity experience on the mound.
“Having four varsity pitchers returning will be an advantage for us,” Welsh said. “Our pitching will be a key part to keeping us in every game this season. If we can limit free bases and errors then we should have a chance to win most of our games this season.”
Stigall, a 6-foot senior all-conference and all-district honoree, finished 5-2 with a 4.68 ERA last season. At the plate, he hit .386 with 2 home runs, 26 runs batted in and 9 stolen bases.
“Dakota will be our starting center fielder and a starting pitcher,” Welsh said. “He will be a main key to our team this spring if he fills up the strike zone and gets on base. If he is having a good game, then it normally results in success for the rest of our team.”
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McDaris, a 5-foot-10 senior infielder, posted 14 runs batted in and 9 steals in 2022.
“Ethan will need to be ready to play multiple spots in the infield throughout the year,” Welsh said. “We will also rely on him to be ready to pitch at any time in any game throughout this spring.”
Delcour, a 5-foot-10 sophomore infielder, hit .231 with 3 runs batted in and 3 stolen bases last season.
“Hunter will be an infielder and pitcher this spring,” Welsh said. “He is a player that could step up this spring and help us be successful.”
Cryer, a 6-foot-1 junior, finished the 2022 season with a 2-0 record and 2.86 ERA.
“Jalon will be an outfielder and pitcher this spring,” Welsh said. “His role on this team will be to give us quality starts all spring. If he is quality on the mound this spring, then it will most likely give us a chance to be successful.”
Welsh also expects freshman Gus Sinning to see time on the varsity mound this spring.
Behind the plate, Kolton Cogdill returns to help guide the Hartville pitching staff.
Cogdill, a 6-foot senior, finished the season with 3 runs batted in and 8 stolen bases.
“Kolton will be our starting catcher this spring,” Welsh said. “We will rely on him to be a wall behind the plate. His batting has improved since last season, which means we will need him to help drive in runs this spring.”
At the plate, Hartville expects outfielder Grant Culver to be a primary run producer for the team.
Culver, a 6-foot-4 junior, received all-conference and all-district honors as a sophomore.
“Grant will be a starting outfielder for us this spring. He will be one we rely on to drive in runs. If he consistently produces at the plate then we should be successful.”
In addition to his returning core, Welsh expects a host of varsity newcomers to make immediate impacts on the roster.
Payton Cogdill, Gavin Stigdall, Asher Lanham, Brock Jones, Mason Cogdill and Truett Coryell will all compete for playing time this season.
“I have some JV players that will play varsity this year,” Welsh said. “They were able to get a lot of varsity experience this fall, so I fully expect them to step up and be ready to play at any point in time this season.”
While Hartville’s roster will be young and relatively inexperienced, Welsh believes his group is capable of adjusting quickly to the varsity game and making big strides this spring.
“It is going to take the whole team to come together and step up each game we play,” Welsh said. “If we limit the mistakes and do the little things right, then I think we will give ourselves
a chance to be successful this season.”
At the plate, the Eagles will look to field base runners for Culver and others in the middle of the lineup.
“For us to be able to have success this season, we will need the top of our lineup to be on base as much as possible,” Welsh said. “We did a good job this fall on not swinging at pitches out of the zone. If we stick with this approach, we will have an opportunity to score and produce quite a few runs.”
Hartville opens its season March 18 in the Purdy Tournament.
