Patriots swinging into shape for upcoming season

Patriots swinging into shape for upcoming season

A first look at Marion’s 2018 baseball team

sports@theeveningtimes.com

Fall ball is over and the regular season is rapidly approaching for the Marion Patriots who are set to grace the diamond for the first time during 2018 in just over a month with their new skipper Pete Prater.

Prater and the Patriots currently have 37 players on the roster and are focusing on having a deep presence on the mound with 22 players vying for a spot on the hill.

“Our pitching depth is going to be key this year,” Prater said. “The further I’ve gotten into the fall and now into the new year, (I’m seeing) there wasn’t a whole lot of pitching depth there from last year. So, we’re working on that.”

The head ball coach says he hopes to find between 10 and 12 pitchers he can use throughout the season in different situations. In the front running for the Marion ace role right now is sophomore Braeden Wolford who started the Patriots semifinal round playoff game last season against the Greenwood Bulldogs as a freshman and walked out of the eventual Patriots loss with a no decision after seven innings.

“It’ll be his spot to lose to start with, I’m sure,” Prater said. “He ended up pitching in some big games for them last season. So, he’ll have that.”

Alex O’Brien is another returning pitcher for the Patriots who should find his way back to the mound this season along with freshman Daidrick Cale who threw footballs as Marion Junior High’s starting quarterback this past football season.

Either climbing the mound to start the game or coming out of the bullpen will be a slew of other Patirots including Jackson Randolph, lefty Marquise Coleman and starting second basemen Hayden Hodge.

“He hadn’t thrown a whole lot during his lifetime but we got him up there and he was probably our most consistent strike thrower,” Prater said of Hodge. “He can throw his fastball. He can spot it up and he can throw a lot of change-ups for strikes. He just looks poised on the mound. So, we’re going to give him a shot.”

Rounding out the front runners for the Marion pitching spots is one Patriot is who is very familiar with the pitching duties, only from his experience on the other end of the battery. Prater says that fans shouldn’t be surprised to see starting catcher Peyton McElroy eat up some innings in the pitching rotation. Most of the time though, the Patriots returning backstop will be behind the plate and some of his fellow returning starters will resume their typical positions. Hodge will play mostly at second base.

Tony Rudd should continue with starting shortstop duties. But, that’s about all that is certain in the Marion infield at this point.

Prater says that Cale is the presumed starter at third base and Peyton Walker is separating himself at the first base position.

All outfield positions are still up for grab at this time though, according to Prater.

“In the outfield, I don’t care if it’s left, center or right, first I’m looking for speed,” Prater said. “Then, my second choices are going to be, in right field I’m looking for a guy that can throw a little bit, of course. Centerfield, I’m looking for a guy that can run a little bit, doesn’t have to have the best of arms but is a pretty good field general in the outfield and can handle the bat a little bit for us. And, left field, I’m going to look more towards a guy that has an above average arm, doesn’t have to be the fastest guy out there, but can run a little bit and a guy that can hit for us as a two-whole guy or a six, seven or eight-whole guy.”

Mathew Baker and Kenta Jones are two returners from last season who could solidify spots in the Patriots outfield sooner rather than later.

At that six-through-nine spot in the batting lineup, as well as the one and two spots in the lineup, Prater is looking for players who can get on base and find their way back to the plate by any means necessary.

“That’s part of my game,” Prater said. “We’re going to have guys in the lineup that can run the bases, and I don’t necessarily mean the fastest guys but smart base runners. We’ve got to be able to handle a bat. I like to bunt. I like to hitand- run and I like to slash.

But, also in my lineup, I always try to make that work where we’ve got those first two guys that can do that type of stuff and then we get into the three, four, five and six wholes that I look at as guys that can get up there and drive people in.”

Making use of the school’s new batting cages, Prater says the Patriots have done intense work as far as handling a bat is concerned with each player getting up to 150 swings per practice as of late.

Prater doesn’t seem to concerned about the talent level of his players but more about building a sense of confidence as well as an expectation of winning in the Patriots, a team the new head coach figures to have recorded an average record of 10-20 over the past three seasons.

“They don’t know how to win yet,” Prater said. “I don’t look at it this way, but in their eyes we’ve got to go out and win some of those early games to give them confidence that we can win and that we know how to win those close games. So, there’s a lot to prove.”

Marion could utilize homefield advantage early on in the season to jet out to a confidence building record with many of the Patriots games this year at John Robbins Field.

“Whenever you get the schedule and look over it, you’ll notice that we’ve got a lot of home games,” Prater said. “So, the situation with our schedule, us being new (coaches) and trying to implement this stuff, we’ve got a chance to feel comfortable this year a lot and not have to go on the road and find ways to win. So, hopefully we get more students out and more people will come out and watch us and maybe some of that will rub over and turn into some extra wins for us in our first year as coaches.”

The fellow new coaches Prater mentions are Jason Dahl, who Prater coached with at Nettleton High School when Prater coached softball and Dahl coaches baseball, and former Marion and North Point coach Buster Benton who returns to the Marion coaching staff to join Prater this season.

Prater believes that the Patriots are showing signs of a winning team.

“I can’t tell if it’s going to be turn into wins, but I know we’re doing stuff right now that I’ve seen turn into wins in the long run.”

Photo by Collins Peeples

By Collins Peeples