Preview: Crestview Knights baseball

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

CONVOY — Rebuilding doesn’t seem like a word that’s a part of Crestview’s vocabulary, but it’s a word that veteran head coach Jim Wharton used when describing his young squad and the 2020 high school baseball season.

“The Knights will be in rebuild mode as we will start the season being extremely inexperienced having only six lettermen returning, three full time starters, and zero pitching wins returning,” Wharton said. “Eight kids will be experiencing varsity baseball for the first time.”

The six returning letter winners are three-year starter and Kaden Short (SS/2B/P); senior Jacob Forwerck (SS/2B/P); juniors Trever Sheets (1B/P); Logan Gerardot (OF/P); Brody Brecht (C/OF/P), and Tyler Hart, a pitcher who missed all of last season after shoulder surgery. Sophomore Ayden Lichtensteiger (3B/P) is the remaining returning letterman.

“We look forward to this group’s opportunity to perform at the varsity level in a Knight uniform,” Wharton said. “We are very pleased with a core group that has put in the time in the off season, embracing the process which is critical to put yourself in a position to be successful.”

That group will have to replace seven seniors, including five all Northwest Conference players from last year’s 8-12 team that were lost to graduation – Brant Richardson (P/1B, first team All-NWC); Kole Small (P, first team All-NWC); Griffin Painter (SS, first team All-NWC); Korbin Hartman (C, second team All-NWC); Riley Saylor (CF, honorable mention All-NWC), and outfielders Riley Wilson and Brock Stauffer.

In addition to the six returning lettermen, Wharton has several other players who are new to the varsity at his disposal, if the season begins early next month.

That group includes seniors Michael Joseph (P); Drew Mosier (OF) and Grant Mefferd (OF); juniors Braxton Strunckenburg (catcher) and Ian Bailey (C/3B); sophomores Nick Helt (OF/P); Will Sharpe (INF/C/P) and Mason Penix (3B), and freshmen Nathan Lichtle (P/SS/OF) and Carson Hunter (2B/C/P).

“We are excited about the potential this group brings to the table,” Wharton stated. “Although inexperienced, this group will push each other as we look to make out starting lineups on a daily basis.”

“With the number of positions we need to fill we will be a work in process, but we all are looking forward to these challenges ahead,” the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer added.

Like all other teams, Crestview’s practices were stopped last month in the fight against the coronavirus, or COVID-19, but Wharton liked what he saw up to that point.

“We really liked the productivity and work ethic in our practices before the COVID-19 shutdown,” Wharton explained. “The kids had displayed
tremendous growth in their preparation to start the season.”

“Like everyone we are hopeful that these kids will have the opportunity to compete this spring. With the extended layoff there will be obvious rust to knock off and will take some time to safely return to game conditioning that we are cognizant of. These unprecedented times hopefully will strengthen our resolve with the opportunity to compete.”

“Our pitching staff will need to mature and develop in a hurry for us to be competitive at this level and with our strength of schedule,” Wharton added. “This group has invested in the off season and we feel will continue to improve throughout the season keeping us in games with the goal of playing our best baseball come tourney time.”