BASEBALL INDIANS' "REBUILDING" YEAR EXPERIENCES HIGHS AND LOWS ON WAY TO SEASON RECORD OF 10-31

Without a single varsity starter returning for this year's Waukon Indian baseball team, Coach Paul Norton knew this year's club would have to be built from scratch.
"It was a rebuilding or restructuring type of year," Coach Norton said. "We had virtually no varsity experience returning for us this year. The two state tournament teams we've had the last two seasons were both senior-dominated, so it was hard to get this group of kids any varsity experience as underclassmen with senior classes like that."
That building process got off to a slow start, but showed steady and consistent improvement over the course of the eventual 10-31 season, finally resulting in a season climax of a first-round district tournament win over Decorah that capped off a final week of the season that saw the Tribe win five of its final nine games. Those final five wins in just over a week's time doubled the Indians' season win total of just five games through the first 32 games and six weeks of this season.
"We knew the schedule would be tough this year after all the upgrading we've done over the past couple seasons," Coach Norton said. "But, we also knew that with the recent baseball success we've had here in Waukon, these kids would be striving to keep our program respectable."
The first two weeks saw the Tribe struggle to zero wins in its first 10 games, the Indian line-up shifting with nearly each game in an effort to find the right combination of offense and defense. At that point, any first win of the season was going to be big, but some added dramatics made that win even bigger, as junior Heath Hesse belted a game-winning grand slam to defeat Charles City, a team that finished second in the Northeast Iowa Conference race and finished with a 20-win season on the year.
"I thought that win was somewhat of a turning point for us," Coach Norton said. "We needed to find a way to win at that point. And to have it come in such dramatic fashion was even better."
The Indians never even approached a losing streak close to 10 games for the remainder of the season, wins coming more and more frequently until the final week and a half of the season that produced five wins in the Tribe's final nine games, a final district championship loss to New Hampton bringing the Indians' season to a close. That season-ending loss came on the heels of the Tribe's highlight of the season, a first-round district tournament win over Decorah - a team that had blanked the Tribe in three straight regular season games.
"Without a doubt, that was the high point of our season," Coach Norton said. "A win like that over a good Decorah team gave these kids a lot more confidence for the future. We were able to put together one of our most complete games of the year, showing these kids that they do have what it takes to play competitive baseball."
This year's team was led throughout this season by just a trio of seniors. Eddie Frick, Craig Stott and Jason Manning provided that leadership. "Jason was a big contributor to our team in just his first season out," Coach Norton said. "Eddie and Craig were our foundations for our infield and outfield. Craig was our best outfielder, probably the best at covering ground that I've had play for me. Eddie was just as effective at shortstop. The key to defense in baseball is range, and these two both had great range at their respective positions."
Frick's leadership carried over into the statistical aspect of this season. He paced the Tribe with 23 RBI and a .451 slugging percentage, sharing team honors with his three home runs and 55 total bases. He also led the team with 10 successful stolen bases in 11 attempts. Stott's leadership was also statistically evident, but in a less glorified role. He led the Tribe this season with six sacrifices and by getting hit seven times by pitches. He also paced all Indian oufielders with 84 put outs, compiling a .927 fielding percentage.
The statistical leadership did not lie completely with this year's seniors, however, as an abundance of this year's top performers will return next year. Juniors Chris Kamm and Heath Hesse chipped in with their share of team bests, Kamm leading the club with 22 runs scored and 132 at-bats and also sharing Frick's team highs of three homers and 55 total bases. Hesse was the Tribe's top hitter with 39 hits, including 11 doubles on the way to a team high batting average of .317.
Frick and Hesse also paced the Indian pitching statistics in different categories. Frick posted the most wins for the Indians this year with a 4-6 record, but it was Hesse who shouldered a majority of the workload with team highs of 85.7 innings pitched, 12 complete games, an ERA of just 2.70 and a strikeout-to-walk ratio of more than four-to-one.
"Heath's win-loss record isn't a great one with just two wins and 12 losses," Coach Norton said. "But, when you look at his ERA and his strikeout-to-walk ratio, that tells a different story. He faced our best competition a majority of the time, and a number of his losses came in close ballgames."
With the loss of just three seniors from this year's club, the experience gained by an underclassmen group of eight juniors, two sophomores, five freshmen and even one eighth grader, will be well represented next season. "With a year under their belt, our returnees should be much improved," Coach Norton said. "We'll need to become more consistent hitters, up and down the line-up, and our defense will also have to become more consistent. I can see a lot of competition for positions next year. Just because you were a starter this year, doesn't mean you'll be guaranteed a spot next year. The off-season will tell a lot."