By Chris Parker
Greenwood baseball enters its fourth season of existence coming off an eight-win season. Seven varsity lettermen return for head coach Chris Meza’s Blue Jays.
Senior Chance Rose, junior Cooper Morgan and sophomores Henry Haynes and Coen Little will anchor the pitching staff.
Morgan led the group with 23.2 innings pitched last season. He tallied 32 strikeouts. Rose was just behind him with 22.2 innings pitched and 37 strikeouts. He was also the team’s top hitter with a .377 batting average. Haynes struck out 18 across 16.1 innings last season.
Junior Tayven Zarechi will be behind the plate at catcher.
Look for Morgan (first base), Adam Abdalla (freshman second base), Logan Sanders (senior second base) and Caden Frederick (sophomore third base) around the infield.
The outfield will feature Haynes in centerfield. He will be flanked by either Thomas Gillmore (freshman) or Sanders (senior) in left field and Sebastian Parada, KaramJay Singh or Thomas Lin in right field.
Rose, Morgan and Zarechi were identified as players who will have a leadership role.
“Their willingness to work and compete they spent a lot of time this off season getting better living in the weight room. We are hoping that it will translate to on field production,” Meza said.
The Blue Jays will use speed to their advantage but must get better in the field to be successful.
“After stealing 117 bases as a group, we look to add to those totals we would like to lead our class in stolen bases,” Meza said. “We will be asking a lot from a young group to make the routine plays and throw strikes.”
Greenwood opens the season on Mar. 24 at Weaubleau.
“(We want) to be above .500 and compete for a district crown. We have enough talent to sneak up on some people,” Meza said. “We just need our role players to contribute enough to lead us past the opponents that have a lot more baseball experience than us.”
