Baseball season is quickly approaching and I wanted to see if we could drum up some good conversation in regard to the SE Conference.
Mt Pleasant - They return their top 3 pitchers in Shull, Dilks and Amos so pitching should be solid for the Panthers this season. They should have a good defense and return many starters. Big losses to the Panthers will be short stop Joey Vaughn, catcher Ross Heitmeier and outfielder Ryan Schenk. This years Jr class logged alot of innings for the Panthers last season as soph's so they should be solid and should hang around with the conference leaders this year.
Washington - These guys seem to reload every year and coach Miller will have his kids ready to roll come May 1st. Graduation will hit this team pretty hard losing 6 seniors that started 20 or more games. Juniors Walker Breard, Tanner Knupp and Elijah Wood logged alot of innings last season and will be a great base for this ball club this summer. These kids always come to the plate swinging and will get the ball in play. I look for these guys to be in the mix at the top as well.
Ft Madison - The losses of Nick Hunter, Dakota Gray and Dillion Herron will certainly hurt the Hounds however seniors Collin Eaves, Jonathan Temenak and catcher John Nagel are more than up for the task of getting this team into post season play. Their pitching will be solid and they will also find a way to get the ball in play. This team should certainly be one of the top 3 teams in the SE conference. I suspect they may be the team at the top when the regular season comes to an end.
Fairfield - These guys were pretty junior dominated last year so they will return alot of experience this summer. The losses of Corbin Harwood, Brent Buch and Nick Fitch will hurt but this team should be very good on the hill. The big question mark for this team will be is if all of that returning experience will be able to score runs as they were at the bottom of the conference last year in runs scored.
Keokuk - Losing seniors Ryan Kemp and Bryce Rose will leave the Chiefs with some big shoes to fill at the plate and on the defensive end. However, Coach Ames does have some talented returners lead by senior Trevor Roth. I think the big question mark for this team will be pitching. They did have several underclassmen log alot of innings last season so the jury is out on how these kids use last years experience to make improvents for this season.
I think the conference ends up like this, but do believe the top 3 are very close and this could go in any direction depending on who steps up.
Ft Madison
Mt Pleasant
Washington
Keokuk
Fairfield
Best of luck to all the SE Conference teams!
Mt Pleasant - They return their top 3 pitchers in Shull, Dilks and Amos so pitching should be solid for the Panthers this season. They should have a good defense and return many starters. Big losses to the Panthers will be short stop Joey Vaughn, catcher Ross Heitmeier and outfielder Ryan Schenk. This years Jr class logged alot of innings for the Panthers last season as soph's so they should be solid and should hang around with the conference leaders this year.
Washington - These guys seem to reload every year and coach Miller will have his kids ready to roll come May 1st. Graduation will hit this team pretty hard losing 6 seniors that started 20 or more games. Juniors Walker Breard, Tanner Knupp and Elijah Wood logged alot of innings last season and will be a great base for this ball club this summer. These kids always come to the plate swinging and will get the ball in play. I look for these guys to be in the mix at the top as well.
Ft Madison - The losses of Nick Hunter, Dakota Gray and Dillion Herron will certainly hurt the Hounds however seniors Collin Eaves, Jonathan Temenak and catcher John Nagel are more than up for the task of getting this team into post season play. Their pitching will be solid and they will also find a way to get the ball in play. This team should certainly be one of the top 3 teams in the SE conference. I suspect they may be the team at the top when the regular season comes to an end.
Fairfield - These guys were pretty junior dominated last year so they will return alot of experience this summer. The losses of Corbin Harwood, Brent Buch and Nick Fitch will hurt but this team should be very good on the hill. The big question mark for this team will be is if all of that returning experience will be able to score runs as they were at the bottom of the conference last year in runs scored.
Keokuk - Losing seniors Ryan Kemp and Bryce Rose will leave the Chiefs with some big shoes to fill at the plate and on the defensive end. However, Coach Ames does have some talented returners lead by senior Trevor Roth. I think the big question mark for this team will be pitching. They did have several underclassmen log alot of innings last season so the jury is out on how these kids use last years experience to make improvents for this season.
I think the conference ends up like this, but do believe the top 3 are very close and this could go in any direction depending on who steps up.
Ft Madison
Mt Pleasant
Washington
Keokuk
Fairfield
Best of luck to all the SE Conference teams!
