By Chris Parker
Hurley baseball has a new head coach in Quinn Appletoft taking over this season. He steps up to the head job after serving as an assistant for the past three seasons.
“I took over as head coach of Hurley because I have built a strong connection to the program and players as the assistant the past three years,” Appletoft said. “I know what these boys are capable of, and I want to give them every opportunity to succeed on and off the field.”
The motto for this year’s team will be ‘stay hungry’.
“The identity we have been working to instill in our program is that of positivity, hard work, and high energy,” Appletoft said. “We have a motto of ‘stay hungry’ to remind us to keep competing and to never give up.”
Five starters return from last spring with eight returning from a fall season that saw Hurley win six games.
Two seniors will lead Hurley in Aidyn Whaley and Jordan Yoho along with junior Kolton Graves.
“We have two seniors on our team in Aidyn Whaley and Jordan Yoho. These are two guys who lead by their actions and have a big impact on the mentality of our team,” Appletoft said. “We also have a good vocal leader in junior Kolton Graves. Kolton does many different things for the team as a utility player and does a great job at keeping up the positive energy on the team.”
The key pitchers for Hurley will be Mason Dunn (sophomore), Caysen Youngblood (sophomore), Cannon Keithley (junior), Shawn Whitlatch (junior) and Whaley.
“Mason is a very consistent presence on the mound who can throw a lot of innings and has made great strides in increasing his velocity and breaking stuff. Caysen is another arm that can give us a good amount of innings and can stay calm under pressure as he picked up two saves this fall. Cannon came to us from a nearby school this year and looks to make a big impact with a great fastball and good off-speed. Shawn is a key part of our rotation who will also compete on the mound for us. Lastly, Aidyn is a highly competitive pitcher with great off-speed pitches that are complimented by a good fastball that will win us games,” Appletoft said.
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Junior Shawn Whitlatch will be the team’s main catcher.
“Shawn has a great arm from behind the dish and has really gotten comfortable with pitch calling,” Appletoft said. “Shawn has made great strides over the years to become a solid catcher for us.”
Yoho will also see time behind the plate.
Youngblood will play first base with Jordan Cloud (sophomore), Graves, Keithley and Whaley also on the infield.
Chance Sutton (sophomore), Dunn and Yoho will be key outfield contributors along with Charlie Ross (junior) and Danial Keithley (freshman).
Hurley will hang its hat on pitching and defense this spring.
“I believe the strengths of this team will be our pitching and defense. We made a big point of working to become more competitive on the mound and attack hitters which led to a jump in strikeouts and a reduction in walks,” Appletoft said. “In the spring of 2022, as a team we struck out 99 and walked 102, in the fall of this year we struck out 147 while walking 82. Our pitchers have done a great job of keeping us in games and giving us a chance to win. Part of our pitchers’ success also comes from the confidence they gain from having a solid defense behind them. We have worked tirelessly to make sure we make the simple plays on defense and always give our best effort. We want to take pride in our defense just as much as we want to take pride in our hitting and pitching.”
The Tigers will look to be more effective at the plate and push more runs across.
“Our main area to improve this season will be run production,” Appletoft said. “Throughout the fall we were able to get runners on base but struggled to drive them in. The addition of Cannon Keithley will help with scoring more runs, but we will have to work hard as a team to make the most of our opportunities. Our pitchers have made the strides necessary to keep us in games, but it is now up to our offense to help us win them.”
Hurley opens the season on Mar. 17 at home against Norwood.
“Our expectation for this season is to be competing for a district title at the end,” Appletoft said. “We have the necessary players and talent to get us to that championship game and to hopefully win it.”
Appletoft will be assisted by Andy Maxwell.
