By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Fresh off the first district championship in program history, East Newton’s baseball team will have a new face at the helm this spring.
Josh Trammel has been promoted to varsity head coach after leading the junior varsity squad last year, and he takes over a team that returns all but a couple starters.
“I’m obviously excited for the opportunity and we have a really good group of kids coming back from last year,” he said. “We lost two seniors and we’re still a fairly young team. We do have several seniors this year but everything is there to have a successful season.”
Seeded third in Class 3 District 11, the Patriots had a dominant run in last year’s tournament, winning three games by a combined score of 34-3 before falling to Fair Grove in the playoffs. East Newton finished with a 12-14 record.
The list of returning players is highlighted by a pair of all-conference and all-district performers in senior Ty Bowman and sophomore Will Eichelberger.
Bowman nabbed honorable mention honors as a catcher in the Big 8 West and was named to the first team all-district team. He led the Patriots with a .397 batting average and a 1.009 OPS and drove in 22 runs while hitting eight doubles.
Eichelberger was a .310 hitter who totaled four doubles and three triples. He earned honorable mention Big 8 honors in the outfield and was second team all-district.
“Ty Bowman is an absolute stud,” Trammel said. “He’s a great catcher. Will Eichelberger was a dude as a freshman. He hit the ball really well and has a great glove in the outfield.”
Eichelberger is the lone returning outfield starter, but the rest of the infield is filled with experience.
Senior Mason Hailey returns at first base and was the team’s pitching ace last season until suffering a knee injury in the middle of the season. He batted .262 and pitched to a 4.34 ERA with 25 strikeouts in 19.1 innings.
Senior Jack Cook returns at second base with a “really good glove.” He hit .273 as a junior.
Returning at third are junior Brinnen VanLue and sophomore Josh Mathis, who split time at the position. VanLue batted .221 and Mathis .208, each with two doubles.
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The Patriots would have a third all-conference and all-district player back in shortstop Kolt Walters, but the junior injured his knee in basketball and won’t be able to play this spring. He was a second team Big 8 performer and first team all-district player.
Sophomore Luke Moore saw some playing time in the outfield as a freshman, and sophomore Braxton Wolfe served as a utility player; both will be looking for increased playing time this year.
Additionally, junior Dasan Sartin should be a big contributor as a varsity newcomer.
“I don’t think we’re going to necessarily stand out in any one specific phase of the game but I think we have guys who are going to contribute across the board,” Trammel said. “If we have a few guys take just a small step forward and juniors and seniors stay where they were or take a step forward, we should be able to build off last year’s district championship team. The kids are excited and they want to win a lot of baseball games this year.”
Hailey will once again lead the pitching staff and has the right mindset to be an excellent varsity starter, Trammel said. Brinnen is right up there in the same conversation, he said, and the junior understands pitching better than most high school players.
“He and Mason will obviously anchor the rotation,” Trammel said. “Kolt would have been our second or third starter. It will probably come down to Josh Mathis and Will Eichelberger, who both pitched well at the varsity level as freshmen, and sophomore lefty Christian Cook, who also threw a little bit of varsity last year.”
VanLue was third in innings pitched (24) last year, and he struck out 25 with a 2.04 ERA. Eichelberger (9.2 innings) had 12 strikeouts, Cook (11.1 innings) had four strikeouts and Mathis (10 innings) struck out nine.
East Newton will jamboree March 11 at McDonald County, and opens the regular season March 18-24 at the Purdy tournament.
