Hit .364 in 2010
After a week of indoor practice and a short trip to Arkansas for warm-weather training, Tiger coach Mike Winters likes what he sees as far as his team's potential for scoring runs and fielding the ball.
The pitching? Well, that's a story that won't be told until the snow melts and the home plate umpire shouts "Play ball!"
"We have limited experience as far as a pitching staff goes," Winters said. "We need to find guys who want the ball and aren't afraid to go out there and throw strikes and battle on every pitch."
Seniors Dayne Eich and Zach Wallace both logged varsity mound time last spring but combined for a total of just four innings. To complicate matters, Wallace missed the Arkansas trip because of illness and Winters said he will need to be patient with his comeback.
Winters will choose the rest of his staff from a long list of prospects, including senior Cole Luskey; juniors Ty Vincent, Jonathan Ellis, Nathan Graham, Drew Hegseth, Andy Morris, Andrew Sharratt and Jack Buss and sophomore Spencer Merle.
Besides Wallace who hit .240 as a junior in 2010, the Tigers return just two other lettermen from a team that finished 9-13 overall and 5-9 in the Missota Conference.
Outfielder Steven Barber owned the second highest batting average on the team at .364 and catcher Sebren Baer batted .260 with six runs batted in.
Seniors Luskey, Eich, Quinn Eden, Tommy Korbein and Zak Payne along with juniors Graham and Jake Baskerville also saw limited action last spring.
The rest of this year's playing time will likely go to juniors Vincent, Hegseth, Morris Sharratt, Buss, Nick Newman, Ryan Schoening, Jonathan Ellis, John Stibal, Tyler Knutson, Simon Lindstrom, Marty Rivera and Bret Hoffman and sophomore Merle.
Winters noted that although his team is young and for the most part inexperienced, he isn't conceding anything to Missota Conference and Section 1AA opponents.
"I believe that both the conference and section are wide open," he said.
Jon Graff returns as Winters' varsity assistant coach with Jason Berg handling the junior varsity team and Jason Kohlbeck the B-squad.
Brent Grengs and Andy Pierskalla share the ninth grade coaching duties with Brandon Chant and Joe Moser handling the eighth-grade teams. Tom Auge and Nick Davis coach the seventh graders.
