Hawk Baseball is Rounding 2nd Base
Outfielder Junior Cody Powell
Time to do some prognosticating with some baseballs.
First item is going over what you have to replace from last year’s every day players.
Name GP PA AB R H 1b 2b 3b HR RBI BB SO AVE Michael Brady 28 101 75 9 31 23 7 1 0 18 19 7 .413 Travis Walker 28 96 77 10 16 12 3 0 1 8 14 6 .208 Logan Felch 18 59 49 10 9 3 4 1 1 11 6 8 .184 Daniel Camarillo 23 84 75 14 18 14 2 2 0 8 4 11 .240 Kyler Huff 23 66 55 13 17 12 1 4 0 11 9 10 .309
Only Brady and Huff finished with a better batting average compared to their previous years.
Baseball has a way of doing that many times to players. Major League Baseball players have slumps for a longer period of time or games than what a High School Team will have scheduled for a season.
So, no fault in thinking that these players did not play up to their potential when looking at their body of work for two to three years.
Averages of those same players above when you don’t use stats from their senior season.
Name AB R H BI 2b 3b HR BB SO Ave. Remarks Travis Walker 195 55 64 36 16 1 5 25 28 .328 Played Varsity 4 yrs Logan Felch 135 26 39 32 10 0 5 22 27 .288 Had some power hits Daniel Camarillo 103 23 34 5 4 1 0 13 25 .330 1bs turned 2bs with SB Total 433 104 137 73 30 2 10 60 80 .316
Now you can see how some slumps played into those players on offense. Those same numbers did not translate to their fielding and pitching.
Look how Brady and Huff had improved batting coming into their senior campaign.
Name AB R H BI 2b 3b HR BB SO Ave. Michael Brady 109 22 36 20 6 0 0 28 37 .330 Kyler Huff 106 25 19 14 5 2 0 21 35 .179 Total 215 47 55 34 11 2 0 49 72 .256
Yes, The ReSporter knows that is a lot of numbers, but especially in baseball numbers can tell you so much about why whatever happened on any given situation to help you improve and deduce a reason for that season.
Three players that slumped and two players that improved drastically on previous years. Of course, this does not take into account how these players impacted the game in the field as pitchers, catchers, infield and outfield players.
Canyon Lake will have players making a jump from Juniors to Seniors and knowing how the crystalball will turn into a baseball can only be told when this season draws to a close.
T. J. Jones has been used exclusively in the infield these past three years and what could change this season would be seeing Jones taking more swings than usual. Watch this development in games before district starts and you might get an idea of some offensive skills.Where Jones is valuable without question is in his defensive playing. All-District Second Baseman last year is testament on how this Hawk team will be anchored by this young man.
J. J. Nance came into his on last year with stellar play in the outfield and Right Field can only get better with another year of growth and leadership.
Look at Nance’s improvement at the plate last year and if he can turn in similar numbers, then this has a chance of helping CL improve their stance in the standings.
Nance worked himself into the leadoff spot in the batting order and that aspect might have been based more on his ability to work more walks than his batting average. The better average certainly did not hurt in that endeavor, tho.
AB R H BI 2b 3b HR BB SO Ave.
JJ Nance 2013 Season 58 14 17 7 0 1 0 10 8 .293
Previous Season 59 2 6 7 0 0 0 8 21 .102
Ryan Hutcheson was a pleasant surprise for last year’s team as he had some good outings on the pitching mound and that position would be a good anchor for this year’s club in finding a player, Coach Dunavant, can rely on each week when district play starts.
Hutcheson’s batting average had similarities to Nance in his first year on Varsity two years ago. The difference? has to be his 11 RBI’s on those 10 hits which gives you an indication of his clutch hitting.
On the pitching mound Hutcheson had some good games when he wasn’t struggling with control and when he lost the strike zone then trouble was not far behind.
However, Hutcheson did hold Navarro scoreless on his last start and also had an abbreviated no hitter early in the season which did not go the seven innings. Both games had a pitcher with pin point control and a game in the win column.
Hutcheson’s four wins last season has only been topped by Cody Breest (11) and Ross Wagliardo (5) for all time victories for pitchers.
Peyton Sipila was another diamond in the rough when Coach Dunavant stumbled upon a player that was not signed up to play before games started last year, but when the season begin, Sipila was in attendance.
Sipila shored up an infield spot and finished with a .298 batting average. A contact hitter that only struck out nine times last year which translates to once every seven at bats.
Canyon Lake had several players with a low rate of strikeouts per at bat.
name plate appearances strikeouts PA per K Yr. Graduated Ryan Hutcheson 56 5 11.2 Senior Corey Shedrock 52 5 10.4 Junior Travis Walker 311 34 9.1 2013 Garrett Winters 89 12 7.4 Junior Peyton Sipila 63 7 7.0 Senior Joe Shone 144 22 6.5 2010 Nick Cahill 44 7 6.3 Junior Logan Felch 212 35 6.1 2013 T. J. Jones 22 4 5.5 Senior Cody Breest 141 28 5.4 2012 Daniel Camarillo 195 36 5.4 2013 Michael Brady 232 44 5.3 2013 Drew Riccio 165 32 5.2 2010 Jeff Nabors 177 34 5.2 2011 Ross Wagliardo 158 28 4.8 2010 Cody Powell 91 19 4.8 Junior J. J. Nance 135 29 4.7 Senior Tyler Vinson 84 18 4.7 Junior Zach Jenkins 142 31 4.6 2011 Kyler Huff 191 45 4.2 2013 Forrest Koeppen 125 31 4.0 2010 Dylan Adams 58 15 3.9 2012 Logan Chappell 66 20 3.3 2010 Daulton Winters 179 60 2.9 2011
Anything over 6.0 would be doable for a batter in high school and you can see by the chart above the Hawks have five players that would make that mark playing this season.
The ReSporter will delve deeper into the Juniors and Junior Varsity in the next issue.
