College Heights baseball has the luxury of relying on a key aspect of the game for the upcoming 2023 season that mosts teams aren’t foturnate enough to have—experience.
The Cougars, who finished with a 6-13 record last season, boast a large returning class of 10 student-athletes who either started or logged extensive varsity innings from a year ago, giving CHC elevated hopes for competing at a high level this upcoming season.
“We are excited to see our growth from last spring,” College Heights coach Phillip Jordan said. “We are still a relatively young team, but our younger players gained valuable varsity experience last season. We are a year older, a year stronger and a more-confident team.
“We hope to be competitive every day we step on the field. We have the talent to compete with every team on our schedule. The key will be to find consistency in all areas of the game.”
After graduating one senior from last year’s team, College Heights has two seniors this season—P/IF Ben Thomas and CF Bo Sitton. The Cougars also have a pair of juniors in SS Kelton Welch and DH Caleb Evans.
The bulk of the CHC roster is made up of returning sophomores—3B Josh Anderson, 2B Jayce Walker, C Smoke Ezell, RF Austin Miller, LF Phillip Thomson and 1B Kaleb Kennedy.
Joining College Heights at the varsity level this year is sophomore 2B Caleb Hipple and freshmen OFs Owen Horton and Jace Bowen.
The strength of this year’s College Heights team figures to come at the plate. With so many bats returning to the lineup, improving upon last year’s offense—which showed growth throughout the year—will certainly be an anchor in 2023.
“We have a chance to be an above average offensive team,” Jordan said. “Our guys have put in good work in the offseason and I expect more production on the offensive side this spring. We also have good speed that can put pressure on the defense. Our leadership has improved greatly. Players are understanding their roles and accepting those roles.”
As far as the lineup goes, Ezell and Kennedy figure to be table setters, with Walker, Anderson and Horton in the middle of the order and Miller, Evans and Thomas rounding things out.
What areas of the game will the Cougars need to show the most improvement from last year if they want to reach their goals for the season? That would be getting better on the defensive end and building depth and gaining confidence on the mound. Thomas will anchor the rotation, with Ezell, Anderson and Miller figuring to see plenty of starts as well behind him. Welch, Walker and Kennedy will see innings out of the bullpen.
“We need to improve defensively,” Jordan said. “We had too many errors last year. Our kids have the ability, we need to bring the right focus and mindset day in and day out.”
“We also need to improve our pitching depth,” Jordan added. “We know what we have in Ben as our No. 1, but our other pitchers need to improve their consistency in the zone. We have put an emphasis on hitting our spits and competing in the strike zone this season.
College Heights opens the season at home with a matchup against El Dorado Springs on March 21.
