Sophomore Jacob Hignite will be the Wenatchee Valley College baseball team?s starting center fielder this season.
WENATCHEE ? In his first year as the head coach of the Wenatchee Valley College baseball team, Dustin Willis wanted to begin the process of instilling a winning culture to a program that had fallen on hard times in recent years. Willis accomplished that goal; the Knights posted a 19-21 overall record, a 12-victory jump from 2011. WVC didn?t qualify for postseason play, but was much improved and competitive in most of its games, even against top opponents.
Entering the 2013 season, Willis? mission is equally clear: Continue to cultivate that winning culture.
He knows it won?t be easy. His team, even if it?s better than last season?s squad, may not match last season?s 12-win increase. Willis does know, however, what it?s going to take for the Knights to once again become a contender in the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges East Region.
?We try to get guys to establish a mindset that they?re going to compete every day and give their best effort and consistently be mentally tough,? Willis said. ?I think that started to happen last year, and this year?s group is slowly but surely headed in the right direction. The next step for us is to (qualify) for the East Region tournament, then move on.?
This Knights team will feature a bit of a different look, and that?s by design. In the fall, Willis emphasized versatility to his players, several of whom began to learn how to play different positions.
Sophomore Blake Raekes, for example, was the team?s starting second baseman last season. He?ll play third base this year. Jacob Hignite will be the team?s center fielder this season after playing left field last season. Freshman Randy Fuller will start the campaign at first base, but he?s fully capable of playing third base. Several of the team?s pitchers can play the outfield.
?We?ve got depth,? Willis said. ?Guys can play multiple positions. In the fall we moved some guys around and saw how things worked out. Now we?ll be able to pay a hot bat rather than sticking guys in spots and dealing with the results.?
?(Having that depth) is huge, especially since we?ve got some guys hurt right now,? said sophomore right fielder Justin Berneski, who has been dealing with a sore right thumb early on. ?We?re confident that we?ve got guys that can play different spots ? utility guys. If a guy gets hurt, the next guy will be able to step up.?
The Knights? main strength, however, should be their pitching staff. Sophomore Beau Kerns, one of the team?s co-captains along with Berneski, returns after posting a 1.47 earned-run average and 53 strikeouts in 73 1/3 innings in 2012 and excelling as one of the top pitchers for the Wenatchee AppleSox of the West Coast League during the summer.
The right-hander will be joined by Moses Lake product Mitch Yada, who the coaching staff felt would have the kind of year Kerns had last year before hurting his back early in the season. The left-hander now healthy, and is ready to pair with Kerns to form one of the East Region?s best pitching tandems.
?Mitch and Beau are mirror images of each other from the left and right sides,? Willis said. ?Beau is a bonafide ace. He?s as good as anybody at this level, and he?s the anchor of our staff. He sets a great example, and we?re blessed to have him. Mitch is as good as Beau is. Beau has better command of his pitches, but in terms of pure stuff, Mitch is as good as anyone in the (East Region).?
WVC?s starting rotation will be rounded out by Allen Willey, a transfer from Lewis-Clark State, and freshman Kody Graham. Sophomore Grant Devlin and hard-throwing freshman Lars Rider will serve as the team?s closers, with two Kamiakin products ? freshmen Jake Valdez and Dean Fortin ? slated to be the team?s primary middle relievers.
?We?ve got four quality starters,? Kerns said. ?We?ve also got a deep bullpen. It just comes down to throwing strikes low in the zone; if we can do that, we?re going to be fine. Having Mitch back will be huge. He?ll be able to eat up some innings when healthy. We look forward to seeing if he can improve from last year, if that?s possible.?
Sophomore Evan Reister, a Chelan product, and freshman Josh Brewer will be the team?s catchers. Sophomore transfer Kyler Blades will play second base, with returning sophomores Nate Steffler and Alec Griffiths at shortstop. Rider will be the team?s primary left fielder when he?s not pitching.
But Willis knows that it?s going to take a total team effort for his team to get to where it wants to go this season. He also wants his players to embrace a ?dirtbag? mentality.
?We want to be known as a blue-collar team with chip-on-their-shoulder guys who go out and give great effort and hustle on and off the field and bust their butts between the lines,? Willis said. ?We want to have that blue-collar mentality; if we put in that type of work, the results will take care of themselves. Our guys practice harder than anybody, and hopefully that will start to show up in the win-loss column.?
Saturday
Everett 13, WVC 3
Everett scored six runs in the top of the eighth inning to pull away from WVC in the first game of a doubleheader at Paul Thomas Sr. Baseball Stadium
Brewster?s Stockton Taylor had three hits, including two doubles, for the Trojans.
Reister had two hits for the Knights, and Randy Fuller hit hits first home run of the season.
The score of the second game of the twinbill wasn?t available at press time.
On Friday, the two squads split a doubleheader, with Everett winning the first game 7-3 and WVC taking the nightcap 5-3.
Source: http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2013/mar/16/knights-baseball-team-embraces-blue-collar/
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