{"id":130258,"date":"2020-04-14T03:49:22","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T08:49:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=130258"},"modified":"2020-04-14T08:12:54","modified_gmt":"2020-04-14T13:12:54","slug":"preview-crestview-knights-baseball","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2020\/04\/14\/preview-crestview-knights-baseball\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Crestview Knights baseball"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

SCOTT TRUXELL\/<\/strong>independent sports editor<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CONVOY — Rebuilding doesn\u2019t seem like a word that’s a part of Crestview\u2019s vocabulary, but it\u2019s a word that veteran head coach Jim Wharton used when describing his young squad and the 2020 high school baseball season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d Wharton said. \u201cEight kids will be experiencing varsity baseball for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
In addition to playing football and basketball, Kaden Short is a three-year starter for the Crestview Knights baseball team. Wyatt Richardson\/file photo<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe look forward to this group\u2019s opportunity to perform at the varsity level in a Knight uniform,\u201d Wharton said. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That group will have to replace seven seniors, including five all Northwest Conference players from last year\u2019s 8-12 team that were lost to graduation \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are excited about the potential this group brings to the table,\u201d Wharton stated. \u201cAlthough inexperienced, this group will push each other as we look to make out starting lineups on a daily basis.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith 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,\u201d the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like all other teams, Crestview\u2019s practices were stopped last month in the fight against the coronavirus, or COVID-19, but Wharton liked what he saw up to that point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe really liked the productivity and work ethic in our practices before the COVID-19 shutdown,\u201d Wharton explained. \u201cThe kids had displayed
\ntremendous growth in their preparation to start the season.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLike 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.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur 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,\u201d Wharton added. \u201cThis 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCOTT TRUXELL\/independent sports editor CONVOY — Rebuilding doesn\u2019t seem like a word that’s a part of Crestview\u2019s vocabulary, but it\u2019s a word that veteran head coach Jim Wharton used when describing his young squad and the 2020 high school baseball season. \u201cThe Knights will be in rebuild mode as we will start the season being […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130258","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-03 13:36:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130258","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130258"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130258\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130258"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130258"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130258"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}