Waukon baseball team saves best games for last during 7-22 season
Having graduated two-thirds of his starting line-up from one of its better recent seasons last summer, Waukon baseball head coach Jerry Keenan knew there would be some growing pains heading into the 2016 season. Some of those pains resulted in a 7-22 overall record for the baseball Tribe’s recently completed summer campaign, but it was the growth that reached its pinnacle at season’s end that Coach Keenan was most pleased with, resulting in the Indians tallying their first postseason tournament win since the 2011 season and being within a base hit of earning another tournament triumph over one of the top teams in Class 2A.
“The last week of the season was the best baseball that we played all year and I think it showed on the diamond,” Coach Keenan said. “We got to host a postseason game for the first time since 2012 and got our first postseason win since 2011. Our effort against New Hampton in the postseason was definitely one of the highlights of the season. This season also allowed us to gain a lot of experience on the mound and in the field for a lot of young players.”
After starting out the season with a 1-6 mark, the Indians strung together their only winning streak of the season with back-to-back victories that included their first of just two Northeast Iowa Conference (NEIC) wins for them this season. An eight-game slide midway through the season gave way to some final-inning dramatics at Charles City for that second NEIC triumph that started a trend of the Tribe’s final three victories of the regular season over a course of six games. A final four-game skid, all against NEIC teams, ended the Indians’ regular season and landed them in the seventh position in the final seven-team NEIC season standings, with half of those losses coming in a home doubleheader to Class 2A third-rated New Hampton.
With enrollment figures dropping Waukon down into the Class 2A realm this season, the Indians would see those highly-regarded Chickasaws once again, but not before opening up Class 2A District Tournament play with an exciting 1-0 triumph at home over Sumner-Fredericksburg on the final play of a hard-fought game. Advancing to the district semifinals to meet a New Hampton team that had outscored the Indians by a 40-0 result in their previous three games this season, the Indians, indeed, saved their best game for last, as they played the host Chickasaws to just a 2-1 loss in that postseason second-round match-up, leaving the bases loaded as the game to an end. New Hampton went on to be upset in the Class 2A Substate finals by Denver, who was then a first-round victim of top-rated and eventual champion Clear Lake in the Class 2A State Tournament played just last week.
“I am not certain that our record was always indicative of the way that we were capable of playing,” Coach Keenan observed. “The way we played the last week of the season was very encouraging as we look forward to next season. I am proud of these young men for the way they represented our school district and our communities.”
Defensive woes proved to be the greatest obstacle to the baseball Tribe’s regular season success, as they committed 84 errors in just over 168 innings in the field, an average of one error in every other inning. “We didn’t start the season playing great defense,” Coach Keenan explained. “We need to come out next year playing in the field like we ended the season this year. We also have to be better with our clutch hitting and two-strike hitting approach.”
The Indians batted at a .227 clip as a team, with only one player converting at better than a .300 batting average. Sophomore Mitchell Snitker posted that team-leading average of .352, while also securing team leadership numbers with 17 runs batted in (RBI), 31 hits, 12 doubles and sharing the team lead of 13 runs scored with junior Tyler O’Neill. Snitker also hit one of the team’s two homeruns this season, with senior Haden Hammel managing the other round-tripper and senior Peyton Hesse legging out the Tribe’s only triple of the season in the very last game of the season.
Although a majority of the team’s offensive leadership came off the bats of underclassmen, this year’s club fielded another considerable amount of upperclassmen leadership with four seniors who completed their entire final season on the diamond. Along with the aforementioned Hammel and Hesse, fellow seniors Will Keenan and Zach Troendle each wrapped up their high school careers with completion of this 2016 season.
“Peyton was a tremendous player for the Indians over his career,” Coach Keenan said. “One of the conference coaches called him one of the best defensive center fielders he has seen in his time in the conference. That is a tremendous compliment when you consider some of the great players that have played the position.”
“Will stepped up and played a good second base,” Coach Keenan continued. “He came into the season with very little varsity experience at the position and ended up doing a great job, defensively. Will was willing to do whatever he needed to do to make our team better. He spent a lot of time helping get the field ready to play between games, and for that I am grateful.”
“Zach is the epitome of a team player,” commented Coach Keenan. “Zach was always willing to do the things that often go unnoticed: field work, chasing baseballs, keeping track of the book. Zach had a couple of clutch hits for us this season, including the game winner with two strikes in the ninth inning of the 2-1 victory over Charles City. He was always ready when called upon.”
“Haden developed into one of the best pitchers in all of northeast Iowa by the end of the season,” Coach Keenan remarked. “He worked extremely hard to get to that level. Haden never missed an off-season open gym and it showed on the mound. Haden took the ball in our biggest games and pitched some of the best games that we have seen in recent years.”
“All four of these young men are outstanding students and athletes,” the fourth-year head coach summarized of his four senior leaders. “I thank them for being positive role models for our team and for the young people of our communities. I appreciate a great deal the leadership that these guys provided. These guys will be missed and I wish them the best in their future plans.”
As Coach Keenan indicated, Hammel’s pitching emergence was reflected in the fact that he threw nearly twice as many innings as any other Indian, logging team highs of 65-2/3 innings with 52 strike-outs to go with his team-low earned run average (ERA) of 3.94. Next in line was freshman Levi McGeough, who tossed 38 innings while striking out 24 batters and only allowing opposing batters to convert at a .198 clip at the plate. O’Neill also made double-digit appearances on the mound to log 32-2/3 innings to also help headline the Indians’ pitching future. Nearly half the Indians’ 168-2/3 on the mound this season will leave with the graduation of Hammel and Hesse. Well over half of what returns, however, was provided by the arms of sophomore or younger players, leaving the Tribe’s pitching future a little brighter looking even further down the road as those young arms continue to develop.
For their efforts this season, Hammel and Hesse each received All-Conference Honorable Mention, Hammel as a pitcher and Hesse as an outfielder. This is the second consecutive season for All-Conference accolades for Hesse, who was a Second Team selection last year as an outfielder.
With this season’s top offensive production and two of the Tribe’s top three pitchers from its 2016 campaign returning next season, Coach Keenan is optimistic about the future direction of his program. He also knows, however, that returning statistics mean very little if no effort is made to improve upon them even further before the start of the next season in the spring of 2017.
“The guys need to continue to throw in open gym opportunities,” Coach Keenan remarked. “With the pitching limitations changing for next season, it is imperative that we develop several pitchers. We have a lot of good young arms coming up, but we will need to spend time in the offseason to develop them further. I enjoy seeing the athletes play in other sports and wish them success in those areas as well.”
