By Chris Parker
Jasper baseball has a new head coach in Jonathan Nash this season. He inherits a team coming off a 12-win season with eight starters and 10 lettermen returning.
Jake Harris (senior), Treyton Ritchhart (sophomore) and Hunter Earl (junior) will be team leaders according to Nash.
Harris will start behind the plate at catcher and pitch. Last season, Harris hit .348 with a .468 on-base percentage. Ritchhart will be at shortstop while also pitching. He hit .476 with a .581 on-base percentage last season while throwing 35 innings with 32 strikeouts and a 2.13 ERA. Earl will see time as a reliever on the mound and as a utility player in the field.
Joining that trio pitching will be Gage Hall (senior), Will Thompson (junior), Jacob Davis (senior), Trace Lehman (junior), Brady Sisseck (junior) and Quentin Winans (sophomore).
Clayton Anderson (junior) and Carson Lehman (sophomore) will also be in the mix for innings at catcher behind Harris.
Davis, Thompson, Clayton Atnip, Hall and Sisseck are all candidates for corner infield spots and second base.
Trace Lehman, Winans, Parker Greene and Carson Lehman are all candidates for innings in the outfield.
“Our defense is solid, and pitching is above average. Our awareness in baserunning will improve a lot and we will be looking to put pressure on our opponents to make a play,” Nash said. “We need to allow teams to put the ball in play and let our defense retire hitters to keep arms on the mound. The focus on offense will be timely hitting as we left too many RISP (runners in scoring position) last year.”
Jasper opens the regular season on Mar. 19 at home against Osceola.
“We want to put pressure on our opponents in all phases of the game. We want to be efficient on the mound, have quality at-bats at the plate and play very sound defense. We want to be a tough out for anyone on our schedule and compete night in and night out,” Nash said. “The expectation is to improve in all phases of the game and play our best during the districts. There were a few games decided last year by three to five runs and we want to make sure we turn those outcomes around to our favor.”
