By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
The Lamar baseball team sent longtime head coach Thad Lundine out in style last spring with the Tigers’ first district title since 2019.
The program finished 14-14 and graduated five players who earned postseason honors, including Ty Willhite, a first team Big 8 West infielder; Tate Ansley, an honorable mention Big 8 pitcher and Tyler Ansley, a second team Big 8 outfielder. All three made the All-District first team.
Now Scott Quinly takes over in his fourth year at Lamar; he’s been coaching football and bass fishing since he arrived and previously assisted the football programs at Webb City and Seneca.
“Honestly I’m a baseball guy,” Quinly said. “I coach football and do that stuff now but I played college baseball and coached baseball my whole life until recently. With the group of kids we have I felt it would be a pretty good fit and I’m excited to get going. At a small school like Lamar the kids are the same kids I have in football season and everything else. We have a really good group of passionate kids who work extremely hard.”
Quinly said the Tigers return a great core of quality players this spring and really only graduated about three starters.
“We had a really good summer filling the holes from the seniors that left,” he said. “Any time you lose all-conference type kids they’re hard to replace, like Ty Willhite, the starting shortstop for three years. He was a special athlete. But we’ve got young kids who have worked really hard in the offseason and during the summer to put themselves in position to take that role and I couldn’t be more pleased with what I’ve seen so far.”
The biggest returning contributors are juniors Alex Wilkerson and Cooper Haun and sophomore Brody Gardner. Wilkerson was a first team Big 8 West outfielder (2nd team All-District) who will likely start in center field, Haun was an honorable mention Big 8 infielder (1st team All-District) who will probably play third base and also move around in a utility role, and Gardner was a second team Big 8 designated hitter (2nd team All-District) who batted .410 as a freshman. He could take over at shortstop this year after catching last season.
Lamar will have two seniors on the roster in Logan Kish and Riddick Gordon. Kish, who saw time in the outfield last spring, will be utilized as a catcher this season. Gordon also saw time in the outfield last spring. And junior Trey Pittsenbarger and sophomore Trent Torbeck also earned varsity time last year. Pittsenbarger “took off and ran with it” when he got a chance to play more in the summer and will play second base.
Sophomore Korbin Steinkamp is a lefty who will compete for time at first base or in the outfield. He’s got one of the best swings on the team, Quinly said.
Gardner and Torbeck could also emerge as pitchers this season, Quinly said, and Gage Shaw and Wilkerson will also pitch for the Tigers. Haun is the most experienced of the bunch; he pitched Lamar to a 12-2 win in the district semifinals last spring.
“I have a lot of arms, I just don’t know how many pitchers I have,” Quinly said. “I need guys to eat up innings and keep us in ballgames. I’m not going to be able to run a kid out there who can throw 92 but we have a lot who can throw strikes and stay around 80-82 and be competitive in the zone. I think we have a shot to be pretty darn good, honestly.”
“Talking to the kids last summer, our philosophy is if we can make the routine plays we’re going to be fine,” Quinly said. “If pitchers can throw strikes, we’ll be fine. Offensively, I think, is where we have the advantage. Our kids are very athletic and strong–the weightlifting program is phenomenal. Our kids have a little extra pop to them, they’re strong and fast and we’re going to utilize those things. Expect us to be really aggressive on the bases and play good enough defense to allow our offense to win games for us. The winning mentality in Lamar is something that will hopefully carry over to baseball. We’re going to be a tough, gritty baseball team.”
The Tigers will head to Seneca on March 8 for a jamboree along with Neosho and McCauley Catholic. They open the regular season with the Lamar Tiger Classic March 15-18. Quinly said he’s already talked with Webb City and Neosho about games in the next few years and is a big believer in playing the area’s talented big programs.
“Nothing against the smaller schools around here but I want to compete with those bigger schools so in the Class 3 district tournament our kids aren’t shocked by anything they see,” he said. “If we can hook up with some of those Class 5 schools, they’ll run arms out throwing 87 miles an hour and I need our kids to see that so when we get into districts and hopefully postseason baseball we’re going to be prepared for it.”
Quinly will be assisted by Chase Kilgore, Brandon Castle and Chris Wilkerson.
