WEBB CITY, Mo. — Prep baseball officially kicked off in the Joplin area on Monday with Webb City hosting Carl Junction and Republic in a jamboree.
“They’re excited,” Webb City coach Flave Darnell said when asked about getting time on the field in preparation for the upcoming season. “We have a senior-laden team, we have seven seniors, and I am excited for them.”
“We were talking about it with some of them and I told them the last time I was able to throw (batting practice) to them before a game was the district championship in 2019,” Carl Junction coach Jake Stevenson said. “We’re excited to get back out here today. “
Darnell was hired to take the helm of the Cardinals’ baseball program prior to the start of the 2020 season. Unfortunately, with everyone still figuring out how to deal with the COVID pandemic, the spring sports season was canceled. A year later, Darnell is excited to get his debut season with Webb City underway.
“It’s just good to be back on the field,” Darnell said. “Having that year off was disappointing. We were fortunate to have a really good summer. So, I’ve been around these guys a lot. … It’s great to be out there competing against another team. As a team, we have had a couple good weeks of practice. We have a few things we could improve on, but (today) was good.”
With all of the inclement weather in the area over the last few days, Webb City was able to put their new turf (installed last season) at Chuck Barnes Field to the test. The results were very favorable.
“It’s great,” Darnell said with a smile. “We’ve had all this rain recently and everyone said ‘I guess we’re playing?’ I said, ‘Well, yeah, we are.’ It is awesome when you have turf like this because I don’t have to check the weather nearly as much. It’s great to be out here.”
Of course, the final score to the four-inning games between the Cardinals, Tigers and Bulldogs are irrelevant. What all the coaches are looking for most are the fundamentals of the game being executed properly.
“We threw three guys (in the first game) and we are going to throw three guys in the next game,” Darnell said. “We want to see our pitchers throw strikes. That is the No. 1 thing, we want to see our guys compete in the zone. We feel like we have a chance to be pretty athletic on defense. The main thing coming into something like this is how are our pitchers going to throw.”
“We just want to see the things we’ve been working on in practice transition into game situations,” Stevenson said. “We want to see guys go out and compete. When the ball is hit to them, make the play. … There is a lot we can work on, so we’re just ready to make the most of it.”
