By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Year two of the Kyle Wolf era at Joplin was even better than the first.
The Eagles won 15 games and posted their first winning season since 2014 before bowing out in the second round of the Class 5 District 11 tournament. Wolf noticed more comfort and confidence among the players on a daily basis.
“After the first year the kids were more comfortable with our expectations and I think that in turn led to some confidence in how we played,” he said. “I think it also allowed us to really focus on some of the finer details and not so much just on the process but really on some finer details of how we wanted to do some things. I think that ultimately was able to lead us to a higher win total and we had some pretty good players. We’re certainly going to miss our seniors we lost from last year.”
Joplin graduated seven players including Grant Jones, a first team All-Conference infielder and Josh Wells, a second-team all-conference pitcher. Jones is now playing at Fort Scott Community College.
The Eagles return four starters from that team. Senior Tyler Ledford was a second team outfielder in the Central Ozark Conference and has been starting since the middle of his sophomore year. He batted .325 last year with 23 RBI’s and three triples. He also pitched and has already signed with Missouri Southern.
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The other returners include senior Cade Carlson, a middle infielder who batted .287 with 12 RBI’s and 18 stolen bases. He started at second base but will shift to shortstop this year. Senior Luke Benfield returns as a catcher and outfielder; he batted .255 and stole 15 bases. Senior Holden Ledford returns as a corner outfielder and left-handed pitcher. He was a .300 hitter with 10 doubles and three triples and pitched to a 2.29 ERA.
Two other letter winners return in seniors Will Rader and Carlos Maturino. Rader is an outfielder and pitcher and Maturino is a third baseman and was also one of the team’s best pitchers last year. He finished with a 4-1 record and a 2.04 ERA.
The rest of the lineup should feature a mix of newcomers.
“We have a number of new guys that have the potential to fill those new spots,” Wolf said. “To be honest, early in the season our lineup will probably look a lot different from game to game to give those guys an opportunity compete for those positions. As the year goes on we’ll make decisions on what our most consistent and best lineup will be. We certainly have ideas on who those guys might be but I don’t know we have anything solidified at this point.”
Wolf said Joplin has had the luxury of some really good center fielders the last few years and Rader is probably the front runner to win that job.
“He’s paid his dues, he’s been with us for four years and has been behind some other guys but I think he’s a very capable player,” he said.
First, second and third are open on the infield and several players could fill those spots. Juniors Kohl Cooper and Alex Curry are in the mix at first base. Junior Fielding Campbell and sophomore Bodee Carlson (Cade’s younger brother) could fill in at second base. Maturino and junior Josh Harryman will be at third base.
“I think we’ve got three guys who have the potential to be pretty good starters,” Wolf said of his pitching staff.
That includes Holden and Tyler Ledford and Maturino.
“Tyler hasn’t logged a great deal of innings for us but he had a great summer and he’s got a lot of upside,” he said. “He has the potential to be a very good pitcher in our conference. Holden Ledford was a spot starter for us last year and carried some pretty good games for us. Carlos Maturino actually threw the third most innings we had last year. He was kind of a spot starter and came in relief a lot. He was very effective in his opportunities.”
Behind those three are players like junior Kirk Chandler and Harryman. Chandler has done nothing “but work and get better” and Harryman changed his arm angle to more of a sidearm or submarine pitcher.
Offensively, Jones will be a tough bat to replace. He was a .384 hitter and served as a catalyst in the lineup. But the four returning starters were also the core of the team’s lineup and Wolf expects them to carry the load this spring.
“My offensive approach every year is we’re going to try to use our strengths to produce runs,” he said. “In some years we may be more gap to gap trying to hit doubles and other years we may be a little more small ball and steal bases and bunt guys over. We’ll make assessments of that as we go along as to what we can do best to score runs. With those four guys that have the varsity experience they’ve had, I feel like they aren’t going to be surprised by anything at the varsity level.”
