by Ethan Cundiff

This year the Oak Hills Baseball team is looking towards rebuilding and improving. The team is filled with a lot of leadership and strong players. Last season the team went 17-7 overall and 12-6 in the GMC.

There is a lot of experience on the team returning 5 starters from last year. The one leader that has been dominant for the team over his first three years is Austin Penwell. The senior pitcher and outfielder had a 3-2 record last season with an ERA of 3.86 and looks to improve through the season. Senior catcher Brett Kron who returns back behind the plate. Three juniors come in with strong experience; Kyle Spille who helped the Highlanders offensively last season, Nick Deifel and Drew Wetterich return also.

The Highlanders will need to get a lot of help this year from their pitching rotation behind Penwell after losing most of their rotation last year. They have Deifel who will get better as he gets more experience and senior Tyler Bess will help them tremendously having eight strikeouts in 11 innings.

“We are very experienced at the varsity level with the 6 returning starters that we have myself, Deifel, Kain, Kron, Wetterich, and Penwell and even with our returning players that we have we have multiple people in each position. This will help us improve because we know how intense the game is and we feed that too the players that just got brought up,” Spille talked about how the older guys will help the younger players.

If the Highlanders offense can pick it up throughout the season after only batting .265 as a team mixed with the great fielding that they have don’t be surprised if they come out on top in the GMC and make a run into the postseason.