Preview: 2020 Van Wert Cougars baseball

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

Van Wert’s 2019 baseball season was one for the ages. 

The Cougars won a school record 27 games (27-3) and finished as Western Buckeye League co-champions with Defiance, then won sectional, district and regional championships before falling to Dayton Chaminade-Julienne in the Division II state semifinals.

A staggering nine seniors graduated from that team, including five who signed on to play at the collegiate level – Lawson Blackmore (Miami University); Hayden Maples (Ancilla College), and Nathan Temple, Jalen McCracken and Jaxson Amweg (University of St. Francis-Fort Wayne). Jake Latuzenheiser, Mason McHugh, Mason Place and Taylor Zeeff were key contributors as well.

Entering his 23^rd season, head coach Charlie Witten has just five returning lettermen back but the small group, which includes three seniors, is an impressive one.

C/IF/OF TJ Reynolds is a three-year letterman who hit .313 last season while Keaton Brown (OF/P, .381, 24 runs scored), and Parker Conrad (1B/3B, .347, 26 RBI) have lettered twice. Owen Treece (P/C, 9-0 pitching, 1.14 ERA) is a junior who has lettered twice.

Owen will be our No. 1 starter,” Witten said. “He just brings a competitiveness to the mound with him that has been built by him being an extraordinary three sport athlete.  All of his teammates are extremely confident in Owen’s ability on the mound.”

“I can lump TJ, Owen, Parker, and Keaton together when it comes to leadership on our team,” Witten continued. “These four guys will have 13 varsity letters in baseball after this season and were all important parts of our WBL and regional championship team last year.”

“If you want to talk about TJ specifically – he is an extremely hard worker who has had to put the teams best interest above his own. TJ is a natural infielder and would prefer to play infield.  However, his freshman year, we needed him to be our No. 2 catcher and last year with our depth at middle infield, he was the guy that eventually moved to the outfield and was part of one of the best defensive outfields we have had at Van Wert.”  

“He is one of those kids that loves the game and has made tremendous improvements on and off the field throughout his baseball career at Van Wert.”

Turner Witten is the fifth returning letterman. He’s a sophomore who hit .400 last year. 

As it stands now, Van Wert and all other teams will resume practice on May 4, if Ohio schools are open on that date. Before practices were stopped by COVID-19, Witten was pleased with what his team had accomplished to that point.

“We had three weeks of very good practices,” the coach explained. “It helped that we were able to get outside some during that time, so we were able to have an intrasquad scrimmage as well as two days of coach-pitch scrimmages on the field.  Since we will have five or six positions manned by players that have little to no varsity baseball experience, time on the field before the season is extremely valuable.”

“We have given kids some at home workouts to do during this time that we are off, however, nothing can replace what we do in practice day in and day out or the experience we get by playing games,” Witten added.

“The biggest challenge once we return to practice after this layoff is getting arms back into game shape. Obviously pitchers’ arms are of utmost importance, but the arms of all of our position players will need monitored very closely when we are able to return to practice.”

 “If we are able to have a season with an abbreviated schedule, what kids are doing on their own during the month of April will be huge in determining how much we can accomplish during a shorter preseason practice schedule.”

With the majority of the team making the transition to the varsity level, Witten said the Cougars will have to hurry to see which newcomers will step up to make contributions, but he noted the biggest key will be leadership.

Along with the returning players, seniors Clayton Proffitt and Levi Newell and junior Jacob Place will compete for time in the infield, while juniors Ries Wise and Josh Halker, and sophomore Kaiden Bates will fight for time in the outfield. Rupert could see time on the mound, along with Josh Halker.

“We need to figure out our strengths and weaknesses as a team and work hard to play to those strengths and improve upon our weaknesses,” the coach stated. “We will need to do all of the little things right in order to have a successful season, starting with our pitchers throwing strikes to our defense making routine plays.”

“We will have to limit our mistakes to help prevent big innings,” Witten added.   

If the season is played, the May 9 opener is to be determined.