After falling just short to Indian Creek 4-6 last year, the Woodmen are looking to get a big revenge win this season.
GHS will face them on Monday at 5:30 p.m. at home.
Indian Creek got the best out of the Woodmen last year after the Braves pitching staff threw a phenomenal game against the Woodmen, only allowing two hits while tallying 10 strikeouts. The Woodmen pitching staff also tallied eight strikeouts but allowed five hits with one of those being a home run by senior Bryce Turner for the Braves. This year, the Woodmen are trying to cut back on the strike outs and look to put more balls in play while also cleaning up the defense a little as they had two errors on defense.
“The game last year was a really close one. We went down early but put up a couple of runs in the third inning, which gave us the lead. After that, we made a couple of errors and couldn’t put the ball in play so we were playing catch up the rest of the game,” junior Eli Mason, shortstop, said.
During the off-season, the Woodmen had 10 seniors graduate. Yet the players who filled their positions are as eager to take on the challenges ahead. The new starters include: juniors Carter Williams, Eli Mason, Jayden Pierce and Tate Ritter and sophomores Joey Ortman and Parker Jarboe. The returning starters consist of seniors Ethan King, Mavrick Pauley, Nicholas Pruett and Sam Thompson. The line-up changes game to game, but usually it is King at the lead off spot, Pauley coming up after him, then Mason in the three hole, followed by Ortman, Pierce and Williams. Finishing off the line up is Thompson, Pruett and Jarboe. This team has chemistry and wit, so they could be a threat around Sectional time.
“Although we lost a lot of seniors, we have guys that are ready to step up. Last year, I didn’t play very often, but now that I am a starter, I am feeling better and as confident as ever. We are young, but that means in the upcoming years we will get better and better. I am confident that we can cause a lot of problems this year as many teams don’t view us as a threat,” Pierce said.
The game plan is to clean up the errors on defense and limit the strikeouts. In the off-season, the Woodmen worked a lot on defense, taking as many ground balls and fly balls as they could.
“Our practices recently have been really good so I am confident we will get the win this year. We have taken many ground balls and fly balls, and although it is tiring and somewhat boring, it is what we needed. During the winter, we also hit a lot off of the tee and off of short arm throwing. We have been seeing and hitting the ball well lately so hopefully we can limit the strikeouts,” Ortman said.
