By Becky Walz,
The Warrior Baseball program will look for another successful campaign in the 2022 season, seeking a fifth straight Upper Iowa Conference title and another playoff run. Last year, the Warriors shared the UIC crown with Kee High and lost to Kee in the district final. Kee High went on to finish second in the state tournament.
The Warrior Baseball program will look for another successful campaign in the 2022 season, seeking a fifth straight Upper Iowa Conference title and another playoff run. Last year, the Warriors shared the UIC crown with Kee High and lost to Kee in the district final. Kee High went on to finish second in the state tournament.
The Warriors graduated five seniors, including two all-state players in Cael Kuboushek and Ethan Luzum.
“This is going to be a hard group to replace with both their level of play on the field along with their leadership qualities and passion for playing the game,” said Head Coach Alex Smith, who has been with the program for 12 years.
Joining Smith in the dugout will be assistant coaches Justin Izer, Nathan Moonen, Kody Kleve and Noah Tieskoetter.
Returning letter winners
The Warriors will turn to eight returning seniors that have had a significant amount of playing experience to keep the successful run going in the program.
Success starts on the mound, and the Warriors return a lot of varsity innings when it comes to Jordan Buchheit (5-2, 2 SV, 3.71 ERA, 40 IP, 51K), Nick Holien (4-3, 2.46 ERA, 31 IP, 36K) and Keagen Streeter (2.29 ERA, 37 IP, 63K. The Warriors will need this experience to make up for losing Ethan Luzum who proved to be one of the top pitchers in the state in his senior year. In total fans could see 10-12 guys getting varsity innings this season with the busy schedule the Warriors have put together.
“We will need every guy to take their pitching to another level this year to be competitive in our schedule that is both condensed with lots of games played and loaded with some top teams in a number of classes,” noted Coach Smith.
Offensively, the Wariors will have a different line-up as well, with Herold, Kuboushek, Luzum and Tigges all being out of the lineup. The eight seniors combined with junior Keagen Streeter and several newcomers should hopefully provide for a well-balanced lineup. Unfortunately, due to injury, Carson Wenthold will not be available this season in the lineup.
Lead candidates for the outfield are Jordan Buchheit, Kaden Bullerman, Evan Bushman (17 SB), Sam Conway (17 SB) and Lane Quandahl. Seniors Tony Greve (.316 avg.), Logan Hageman (.327 avg., 3HR, 26 RBI), Nick Holien (.341 avg., 5 HR, 26 RBI) and Dayten Ondrashek (12 RBI) will lead the infielders but several combinations will be needed depending on who is throwing for the Warriors, there are many newcomers to be considered. K. Streeter will be the primary catcher with Kole Hageman, Carson Streeter and Braiden Todd looking to provide some depth.
The Outlook
“We are excited for the upcoming season and look forward to a jampacked schedule between conference games and some top teams from around the area. Early in the year, I expect us to be looking a lot at our roster depth to find the right combination on defense and offense. We may be more inexperienced than our returning roster from last year, but many of these guys have been with our varsity program the past two to three years, so I expect they will be confident in their ability to step into starting roles,” said Coach Smith.
Kee High will return a strong group of players that earned a share of the conference title with South Winn last year and made the run to second place at state. Most would consider them the clear favorite to win the conference, but Coach Smith hopes with the Warriors’ experience, they can find themselves in consideration for the title. He sees Clayton Ridge as another team with a nucleus of returning players that could get into the mix at the top as well.
The Warriors open the season at home Tuesday, May 24, versus Clayton Ridge at 5 p.m.
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