Thursday, March 28, 2024

Kodiak baseball team looks for improvement in 2018

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The Cascade Kodiak baseball appears poised for some big improvement in 2018. Last season, Cascade finished fourth in the Caribou Trail League with a 3-9 record. They finished behind Cashmere (12-0), Okanogan (9-3) and Chelan (6-6).  Omak was 0-12. Overall, Cascade was 5-14.
Cascade Head Coach Mike Kelly, now in his eighth year, said it is hard to tell what kind of team he has this year.
“It’s always super fun to create in your mind what you’ll think it will be. Just reality is we’re a year older. We’re bigger and stronger than we were a year ago when we start 3/4ths of kids as freshman or sophomores,” Kelly said. “Those kids are back, bigger and stronger. I’m excited to see what that turns into.”
Cascade lost three seniors, Max Gilbert, Dane Williams and Wyatt Guthrie. Kelly was happy his younger players got the chance to play with and learn from them.
“As of right now, I like we’re not lead in one direction or another by one or two guys. It’s going to be a team effort. I think there are a lot of kids around the same ability, which is going to be fun,” Kelly said.
On the pitching side, Kelly said he always believes they will be better than ever. He believes that again.
“The guys that we have with the most experience is junior Conrad Hasse. A lefty who is bigger and stronger than he was last year. More confident and hopefully more consistent,” Kelly said. “Naturally, he would be the guy right now. We have five other guys that have the ability to throw strikes. We’re going to find out really early in the season, running out everybody..find out who can throw strikes and get outs.”
On the offensive side, Kelly likes what he’s hearing coming off the bats.
“Around the gym in the first week was noticeably different than it was a year ago. There is a distinctive sound a ball that hits hard makes. It reverberates in the gym. It’s an attention getter. I heard far more of that than I heard last year,” Kelly said. “That is just attributed to size and strength. These kids have all grown. Some of them won’t be recognizable to people who watched us last year. I think offensively, the lineup I would put together is a strong lineup. One through nine will be able to put the ball in play. One through seven should be able to hit the ball really hard.”
For Kelly, Cashmere is still the team to beat until proven otherwise.
“They are alway tough and competitive. They have two really strong pitchers they are lead by. That’s going to make them tough to beat. All these kids faced those guys last year so nothing is new,” he said. “They are the team to beat. Okanogan will be really good. They are young, just like we are. That will be a fun rivalry. We had three great games with them last year. The one loss in the playoffs where we lost by a run to go to the state tournament. Chelan will be great.”
Kelly believes it will be a very competitive league with more consistency than ever. He doesn’t believe there will be an undefeated team again.
Cascade opened the season at home against Ephrata on March 13. Results were not available before press time. The Kodiaks play at LaSalle on Saturday. Next Tuesday, Cascade hosts Royal.
Ian Dunn can be reached at 548-5286 or editor@leavenworthecho.com.

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