Waukon baseball team returns six letterwinners for its 2016 season

The 2016 Waukon baseball team will be looking to answer some question marks, as graduation of seven seniors from last year’s squad that posted a 12-17 overall record took a majority of the Tribe’s starting line-up and statistical leadership. However, six returning letterwinners and some young talent will be looked to for answers to this season’s questions.

Within that veteran half dozen are four of this season’s five seniors, including Haden Hammel, Peyton Hesse, Will Keenan and Chris Miller. Fellow senior Zach Troendle rounds out an upperclassman crew that fourth-year Waukon head baseball coach Jerry Keenan is looking forward to leading this year’s diamond squad. Junior Tanner Mathis and sophomore Mitchell Snitker round out this year’s list of returning letterwinners for the baseball Tribe.

“We have a group of five seniors that will provide valuable leadership to the younger players,” he said. “We lost many senior starters last season who were contributors to our line-up. We need guys to step up and fill those roles.”

Coach Keenan knows that pitching will provide the greatest learning curve for this year’s squad, as graduation took five of his top six pitchers from last season. Hammel is the lone mound returnee who logged more than two innings, amassing 43-1/3 frames on the way to a 4-4 season record and 7.11 earned run average (ERA).

“One of the keys to a successful season will be pitching and defense,” Coach Keenan shared. “We need to cut down on the number of walked batters and play better defense behind them. We will still need to develop the pitching as our conference, as well as our non-conference, schedules are going to be tough.”

Likewise at the plate, the Tribe’s top five batters all graduated as well, although Hesse, Snitker and Miller ranked third through fifth, respectively, in runs scored last season and Miller brings back the team’s third-best runs batted in (RBI) total, 18, and second most homeruns, two.

“We need to get quality at-bats and do a better job with runners in scoring position,” Coach Keenan said of his team’s offensive forecast. “We need to be able to get guys on base and put ourselves in better game situations to be aggressive on the basepaths.”

Those game specifics will be helped along by what Coach Keenan has seen so far in the season’s early practices. “The attitudes and work ethic have been outstanding,” he noted.

Additional help from an experienced coaching staff will also play a role in developing this year’s squad. “Tharin Benson will be the Assistant Coach, he played college ball at Upper Iowa and brings a great deal of knowledge and passion for the game.  He will be a tremendous help with our pitching staff,” Coach Keenan explained. “Blaine Snitker will be our 8th/9th grade coach. Blaine is a former First Team All-State performer for the Indians, and this will be Blaine’s fourth season in that position and he has done a tremendous job. We will also have Tyler Ronan helping us out as a volunteer assistant coach.  Tyler was an outstanding baseball player for Waukon, batting nearly .600 as a senior. This is a great staff to work with and we are excited for the season to get started.”

That combination of veteran returnees, teamwork and coaching experience will all work toward this season’s aspirations. “The goals I have for this season are for us to get good pitching, play better defense, do a good job of getting quality at-bats, and for us to continue to improve as the season goes on,” Coach Keenan shared. “I would like to see us get better every time we take the field and be playing our best baseball at postseason time (which will be in Class 2A this year).”

Playing some of the strongest teams in northeast Iowa, as well as the entire state in just their Northeast Iowa Conference schedule will certainly help the Indians improve their game. “Our conference is going to be very tough,” Coach Keenan reasoned. “Waverly-Shell Rock is the defending state champion, ten-running their opponents in two of their State Tournament games, and they return a lot of their line-up. New Hampton is the defending conference champ and returns great pitching. Oelwein also returns great pitching and will be tough. Decorah is always a perennial power.  Charles City and Crestwood have great programs, and we will be in for a battle every game that we play.”

Coach Keenan also sees his squad’s own home field as being a source of pride and motivation for this season. “Our field is in absolutely beautiful condition and will be one of the nicest looking fields that we play on,” he said. “We are appreciative of all of the hard work and take pride in being able to play at a nice facility.”

The Indians were scheduled to get their 2016 season underway with a non-conference stretch of games that began Tuesday, May 24 against North Fayette Valley and continues Thursday, May 26 at South Winneshiek  before returning home again Friday, May 27 against Central Elkader/Clayton Ridge.