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Baseball Previews: South Putnam adapts to young squad, looks to right ship after late swoon in 2022; Cloverdale looks to be competitive squad with balanced squad in 2023, gets first win over Dugger Union
After winning two of its first three games to start the 2022 season, South Putnam found success fleeting, winning only one of its last 16 games.
Runs were always bountiful in games played by the Eagles, with only one of the team’s 19 games not reaching double digits between the two teams, but it was too often the opponents doing all the scoring as 15 teams scored 10 or more runs against South Putnam.
Eagle head coach Kurt Kyle said the 2023 Eagles were a more focused group that was looking to right the ship this season.
“We’re looking better than I expected,” Kyle said. “The kids have shown a lot of improvement from this time last year.
“Our hitting is coming around slowly but they are doing all the small things right. It may take a couple of games to get into it but, overall, they’re in a good spot.”
On top of needing some time to get into the swing of things, Kyle said there were some things the players could do to get into a rhythm earlier.
“We’ve done a lot of tee work as we don’t have an indoor or outdoor cage,” Kyle noted. “One day each week, everyone has to hit and it’s not as much as we’d like to do.
“We might struggle early a little bit but I’d also like to see us bunt a little bit more to get guys around. If we’re struggling at the plate, if we can get some bunts down, it means we’re seeing the ball come to the bat; if we’re seeing it there, we can hit the ball better if we continue to watch the ball come to the bat.”
South Putnam has four seniors in Harry Eaglin, Uriah Kortz, Tyler Fulford and Ethan Harcourt along with two juniors in Isayah Hardwick and Kyle Glasson.
Sophomores include Ashton Nichols, Wyatt Mullin, Grant Jackman, Cam Bozell and Leyton Wells while freshmen joining the squad in Kenny McDaniel, Hayden Tincher and Landon Miles.
“We’re going to be very young,” Kyle said. “We have four seniors and two juniors with the rest being freshmen and sophomores, which means we’re going to be starting some very young guys in the field.
“Ethan won’t be our catcher all the time as we’ll be building up Hayden behind the plate. Kenny will spend some time at second base while Ashton will be at first base most of the time.
“Cam and Leyton will spend time at third with Wyatt at shortstop when not pitching; when he is, Kenny will move to shortstop while Grant or Uriah move to second,” Kyle added. “Kyle is our guy in center field while Isayah and Harry will be on either side of him along with Uriah at times.”
With several arms missing, such as Trysten Smithers, Aiden Batten, Donald Scruggs and Gavin Eyster, Kyle said Mulling would be counted on heavily to lead the rotation as several younger arms were getting into form.
“Wyatt will be our go-to guy most of the time,” Kyle said. “Cam, Ethan, Ashton, Hayden and one or two more young guys will see time on the mound like Landon.”
As the previous season ended with a long losing slump, building team unity ahead of the 2023 season was important with Kyle noting the squad taking the field for South Putnam would be better prepared for whatever came its way this season.
“When they’re on the field, they’re a close team,” Kyle said. “They talk to each other and are having fun, something they didn’t have as much last year.
“We lost a few players here and there but the kids that are here are here to play baseball and are striving to be better than last year. The seniors group leads, the sophomore group leads and all of the kids are doing the right things now.
“We might not have a lot of wins at the end of the year but we’re heading in the right direction.”
Cloverdale
Monday’s opening-day win, a 20-0 hammering of Dugger Union, shouldn’t be the guideline for which the Clovers should be judged.
It was a positive start to a season that could have gone south before it ever started after Gerry Hoffa resigned as head coach a month before practices started.
Instead, Cloverdale got off to a solid start with Charlie Lee in charge of the squad as the 2023 season began.
“They handled it pretty well,” Lee said about the late coaching change. “It helped I’ve been a part of this for the last couple of years.
“I wasn’t a stranger and the boys knew what to expect coming in. If I was someone brand new, there would be no expectations at the start.”
The Clovers feature three seniors in Mcguire Lee, Levi Hilton and Jayden Sturges along with juniors Layton Allen and Caiden Watts.
Several sophomores dot the lineup in Landyn Shaw, Drake Hoffa, Ben Campbell, Levi Johnson, Corey Branigan and Braxtin Colon along with three newcomers in Landon Duncan, Grayson Grimes and Hudson Young.
Much like their county contemporaries, the Clovers skew toward a younger lineup, though Lee said that was beneficial in its own way.
“It helps as everyone doesn’t have to grow up as fast,” Lee said. “With county and conference teams filled with juniors and seniors, that would be a little intimidating.
“But coming in knowing we’re just as young as everyone else helps a little bit. Expectations from us are still going to be pretty high but as far as the rest of the county, we just have to develop as fast or faster than they are.”
Hoffa started and pitched all five innings in the win over the Bulldogs Monday, recording a no-hit bid with eight strikeouts and two walks, with Lee noting the sophomore will be the first arm in the rotation.
“Behind Drake, we’ll go to Landon Duncan, a freshman, and Leyton Allen,” Lee said. “When Levi gets healthy, we’ll use him as he started the year with an injury, so his arm’s not quite where we want it yet.
“In short relief, we’ll use Caiden Watts, Ben Campbell, Mcguire and even Levi Johnson.”
Mcguire Lee resumes his role at catcher with Hilton at shortstop and Campbell at second base, Hoffa mixing it at the inner infield spots when not on the mound, while Allen anchors the outfield from center field.
“Jayden will be at first base and, as a starter for three years, knows what we expect of him and what we want done out there,” Lee added. “Corey was at third base and we’ll have him catch some to rotate with Mcguire.
“We have a lot of guys, I don’t want to call them utility players, but guys who will play a lot of different positions every night to try to figure out what we’ve got and where everyone should play. Layton will be in center Caiden, Landon, Levi Johnson and some others out there.”
Until a monstrous fourth inning, Cloverdale only led Dugger Union 2-0 after three innings, Branigan getting both runs across with a fielder’s choice in the first inning and a single in the third inning.
Then came the fourth, in which the Clovers sent 23 batters to the box, recording only five hits but getting 13 free passes between walks and hit batsmen, scoring 18 runs in the inning as Campbell drove in four runs and Duncan three runs in the frame.
“It was still just the first win,” Lee said about the 20-0 victory. “You look at the scoreboard and teams will think we did a lot of good things but we only had seven hits on the night.
“If we want to win baseball games, we have to have more hits, though are base running was good once we got on, so there were some positives there. Drake pitched well, throwing a no-hitter, and Mcguire called a good game. When the ball was in play, our defense did a good job of getting it where it needed to go.”
Tougher challenges await with conference play beginning at West Vigo next Tuesday.
Lee said the team wasn’t going in expecting huge wins every night but wanted each outing to be a battle regardless of the result.
“First and foremost, we want to be competitive in every game,” Lee said. “We set some team goals early on and one of those was not to be 10-run ruled, which, in this conference, is going to be tough with West Vigo, Northview, Edgewood and Owen Valley.
“If we can be competitive every day, we’ll be happy with ourselves. We don’t want to put a win-loss together because we can accomplish a lot without a fixed number.”