By Brennan Stebbins (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
After finishing fourth in Class 5 two years ago, Webb City’s baseball team followed that up with its third-straight district title last spring and the Cardinals also earned a share of the Central Ozark Conference championship––their first time winning the conference since 2018.
“It was nice for our kids to enjoy that experience,” head coach Andrew Doennig said. “We had a nice game there with Carl Junction in the district championship and fell a little bit short in our quarterfinal game with Kearney, a really good team who beat us early in the year and gave us two of our eight losses. Overall it was a really good year, we had several guys get all conference, all district and quite a few all-state honors. Individually they had a really good year and our team did, too.”
Among those players lost to graduation, the Cardinals must replace second team all-state infielder Shaun Hunt and first team all-state outfielder (and COC Player of the Year) Drew Vonder Haar. After last year’s 26-8 season, Webb City returns three starters in the field and its top three starting pitchers, as well as a few other players who saw varsity time.
“Other than that we’ll be brand new,” said Doennig, who was named Co-Coach of the Year in the conference. “The biggest thing is our experience on the mound.”
The pitching staff features senior Luke Beverlin who was a first teamer in the conference and on the Class 5 All-State team after going 9-1 in 11 starts and pitching to a 0.84 ERA in 58.1 innings. He struck out 73 and issued 10 walks.
“He could have been 10-1, he had a lead in a game and we gave it up after he came out,” Doennig said. “His only loss was in that quarterfinal game to Kearney. He had a phenomenal year stats wise. The strikeouts to walks (ratio) was awesome for a high school kid. He pitched in a lot of big games. Threw a complete game against Willard in the regular season to give them their only conference loss.”
Senior Landon Fletcher is another returning pitcher who garnered second team COC honors after a 7-1 season in which he tossed 57.1 innings with 49 strikeouts, 10 walks and a 1.59 ERA.
“People forget about Fletcher because of the year Beverlin had but Fletcher was 7-1 and his only loss was to Nixa in our conference,” Doennig said. “He had a really good year. In his sophomore year he was 5-0 before he had an injury that shut him down, so over the last two years he’s 12-1 which is a great record for a high school pitcher, especially in our class and our conference. He’s strong and gained some weight so he’ll be back for another good year.”
The third arm back is senior Cohen Epler, who made five starts and struck out 16 in 18 innings with a 3.89 ERA.
“He felt his way through some weekend games for us and pitched pretty well,” Doennig said.
Senior Landen Piette (17.1 IP, 3.64 ERA) pitched some in relief last season and “can come in and throw a ton of strikes,” Doennig said. Junior Tate Lewis will likely be a late-inning reliever this season, and junior Braden Strickland and a couple sophomores should also contribute on the mound.
In the field, the Cardinals return senior Andrew Young in the outfield, junior Mason Williams at catcher and Epler at shortstop. Young was a first team All-COC player and earned second team all-state honors. The team’s center fielder and leadoff hitter, he batted .381 with six triples and a home run and scored 33 runs. He also led the team with 23 stolen bases and was only thrown out once. At catcher, Williams was a second team COC and second team all-state player who batted second most of the year. He was a .347 hitter with six doubles and 26 runs driven in and drew a team-high 21 walks.
“We look for him to have a bigger role in our offense this year,” Doennig said. “He was really good defensively as a catcher, only had one error on the season and his defensive abilities have actually improved since last year. He’s a really athletic catcher.”
Epler, at shortstop, drove in 19 runs and scored 14 and added 14 walks.
Elsewhere in the field, Beverlin will play somewhere when he’s not on the mound. Senior Brock Renfro could play at first base or designated hitter. Senior Hudson Byrd is in the mix at second base. Strickland and Piette are in the mix at third base. Junior Karsen Myers could also earn time as an infielder or outfielder. Mason Young, a sophomore, could play infield or outfield. Junior Bryson Bard has a strong throwing arm and could play in the outfield and pitch.
“We’ve got a lot of kids who are really athletic and could either play infield or outfield,” Doennig said. “We’ve got a lot of kids who will get a chance early, with pretty wide open competition at a lot of spots and a lot of it will come down to how people hit.”
“We’ll be inexperienced in our lineup as far as guys with varsity experience but our starting pitching obviously is going to be the biggest strength of our team,” he said. “Beverlin and Fletcher have pitched a ton of games since they were sophomores and they’ve pitched against high quality opponents, district and conference games that mean a lot. They’ll be well prepared and I know they’re excited to get going. I think our team will progress offensively, we’ll just have to see what our identity will be. Last year we had a lot of home runs and doubles. This year we’ll probably revert back to a little more small ball stuff which I’m completely fine with. Probably some more low-scoring games this year from us and probably across the conference because everybody’s got some really good pitching.”
Webb City is scheduled to play in a jamboree at Carl Junction on March 14 with Republic, but the Cardinals could end up hosting the event if Carl Junction’s stadium construction isn’t complete. The Cardinals will play what Doennig refers to as a regional schedule in the regular season, with two teams from Illinois, two from Oklahoma, two from Arkansas and one from Kansas on the schedule. Doennig said the COC schedule is even tougher than usual with the addition of Kickapoo and Glendale.
Webb City opens the regular season March 20 against Farmington, Arkansas.
