FREMONT – Base hits win ball games but the Little Giants baseball team didn’t get enough hits last year.
Trey Ickes
Victor Jimenez
Ross posted a team batting average of just .218. Partly as a result of their struggles at the plate, the Little Giants built a 10-15 overall record with a 4-10 mark in the TRAC.
“That was our biggest problem last year,” said head coach Jared King. “We’d get guys into scoring position but we never got those key hits. Our plan this year is to try to maximize it and get those guys in scoring position more often and see if we get those hits strung together more often.”
A season ago, the Little Giants were predominantly underclassmen, as Ross graduated only three seniors from last year and have just three seniors on this year’s roster.
King, beginning his first season as head coach, taking over from his father, Mark, having coached as an assistant for the last eight years, believes the Little Giants have put in the growing pains associated with being young and are now ready to start being successful.
“It was a lot of growing pains the last two years, being a young squad,” King said. “Now we’re primarily older and we should be set up for some success this year. Hopefully we put in the ground work and can settle down and right the ship.”
Cole Druckenmiller
Brandon Schneider
The Little Giants will hang their hat on their pitching and defense. Behind senior pitcher Trey Ickes, who this week committed to continue his career next year at Heidelberg University, Ross has what King called “the deepest group, pitching-wise, we’ve had in probably five or six years.”
Beyond Ickes, who has a wide repertoire of pitches, including a fastball in the low-to-mid 80s, the Little Giants pitching staff will include Cole Druckenmiller, Victor Jimenez and Brandon Schneider, among others.
“I have six or seven guys I feel comfortable putting on the mound in different situations to get us out of innings,” King said. “I would say, we have five guys coming back who threw at the varsity level last year, of some sort, and another three or so guys coming up from JV who logged a lot of innings. We have a lot of guys with experience on the mound in tough situations.”
The pitching staff and defense may need to keep scores down until the offense rounds into form. Not helping matters is the loss of last season’s leading hitter, Grant Gallagher, who hit .310 and provided the Little Giants with leadership on and off the field.
Noah Hotz
Josiah Cook
Noah Hotz, Josiah Cook and Garrett Schneider will be among those in the lineup King will be looking upon to set the table and bring runners home.
“I don’t have a guy who will hit 5 to 10 home runs this year; We might squeak a couple out,” King said. “What I’m looking for is taking the right approach at the plate. When we do those small-ball-type of things, whether they be a hit and run, or whatever, just finding the holes and having discipline at the plate and knowing where you need to go in a situation.
“I think we have an experienced group, old enough and mature enough to get that down and make some noise hitting this year a little bit more.”
The Little Giants begin their season Monday at home hosting Tiffin Columbian at 4:30.