By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Seneca’s baseball team won its first six games last spring and later won 7 of 8 as the Indians finished with an 18-13 record for the second year in a row.
“Overall it was a good year,” head coach Chris Yust said. “I feel like our kids improved overall but our schedule was a little tougher last year than the year before. Hopefully they keep building on those previous two years.”
Seneca returns a number of players who garnered postseason honors, as well as a handful of seniors with a lot of experience.
Senior Hagen Ginger returns at first base and will be a four-year starter. He batted .316 as a junior with four doubles and a homer and he drove in 29 RBI’s and scored 22 runs. Ginger was a second-team All-Big 8 West infielder and all-district player.
“He’s got a really good glove at first base and it’s nice to have someone there who’s going to catch the ball every time it goes that way,” Yust said.
Senior Grant Houchin, a first team Big 8 pitcher and honorable mention infielder and all-district player, will return to third base and on the mound. He’ll be another four-year starter. He batted .322 last year with four doubles, a triple and a homer and 33 RBI’s and 20 runs scored.
Senior Kaden Clouse is another four-year starter who was a second team Big 8 outfielder. He batted .319 with 16 RBI’s and 18 runs scored.
At second base the team returns senior Brayden Roark, a .258 hitter in 18 games last year, whose experience “will be a plus” in the middle infield.
Ryan Owens is another senior who started some in right field and will provide good defense there this season. He played in 8 games as a junior.
“Those guys’ leadership and experience will be invaluable,” Yust said.
The team’s junior class features Drew Sherwood, who will start for the third year. He played center field last season and is another member of the pitching staff. He earned first team Big 8 honors as a pitcher and outfielder (unanimous) and was an all-district performer. He was a .402 hitter who drove in 23 runs and scored 39.
Junior Ian Heffren led the team in pitching appearances and could pitch even more this season while also able to play multiple positions in the field.
Sophomore Jagger Wilson, a .402 hitter with nine doubles, seven triples, a homer and 26 RBI’s and 48 runs scored, started as a freshman at shortstop and also pitched. He earned unanimous all-conference honors as an infielder.
Other contributors will be junior pitcher and catcher Logan Pennington, sophomore infielder Ryder Owens, sophomore pitcher and catcher Silas Ball, and sophomore outfielder Cooper Shaver.
“With the experience we’ve got back with Hagen, Grant, Kaden, Drew and Jagger, that’s the bulk of our offense last year and we did lose Kade Johnson, a three time all-conference kid behind the plate, but those other guys will hopefully pick up the bulk of the offense,” Yust said.
“Pitching will be a big plus for us,” he said. “We’ve got three guys returning that ate up the bulk of our innings. Two all-conference guys and Jagger has the ability to be an all-conference arm also. Those three combined for 15 of our 18 wins, and then Ian with his experience coming in in relief last year, that’s a plus too. We’ve got most of our staff returning.”
Houchin was 6-1 as a pitcher with a 3.22 ERA and 58 strikeouts in 50 innings. Sherwood was 5-4 with 79 strikeouts and a 1.02 ERA in 55 innings. Wilson pitched 45.2 innings with a 3.53 ERA and Heffren struck out 14 in 14.1 innings.
Seneca will travel to Neosho for a March 14 jamboree with Lamar and McAuley, and opens the regular season as the host site for the Wyandotte (Okla.) Festival March 21-22.
“We’ve got a good core group returning and hopefully we can build on what we’ve done the last two years,” Yust said. “They weren’t satisfied with how we finished the last two years. Hopefully we can build on that and get a chance for a conference and district championship.”
