Area baseball teams have thrown the first pitch on new season
HARTINGTON — It’s the beginning of baseball season and a number of teams playing at different levels are getting things going.
From the Wynot Expos of the South Central League of the South Dakota Amateur Baseball Association to three youth Hartington teams, it’s promising to be an exciting summer as the teams move further away (hopefully) from the COVID-19 pandemic that caused plenty of challenges a year ago.
The Wynot Expos
The Expos started the season over the weekend and return after finishing as runner up in the district and making it to the SDABA semifinals last summer.
They host Tabor Thursday before heading to Scotland on Sunday.
“We have most guys back from last year’s team,” Wynot coach and outfielder Lee Heimes said. “We have a good nucleus of young guys that can pitch and play defense. Hopefully, we can build on the success that we had last year.
“We are excited to start playing the game that we grew up playing and have fun throughout the year.”
The Expos roster consists of Kyle Heimes, Bradley Howe, Austin Lange, Cliff Kephart, Dawson Sudbeck, Kyle Wiepen, Ryan Heimes, Jackson Sudbeck, Nate Wieseler, Dain Whitmire, Don Whitmire, Landon Wieseler, Devon Lammers, Scott Morrison, Brett Wiebelhaus, Justin Lange, Turner Korth and Lee Heimes.
“I feel that we are right in the conversation for being at the top of the league,” Lee Heimes said. “We are excited about playing a regular schedule without COVID interfering. Most things are returned to normal.”
The Quad County Hartington Ponies
The Ponies opened up with a 7-2 loss at Ponca 14U last week and continued play Monday at Wynot and coach Don Whitmire will have plenty of kids to work with as he attempts to craft another top team.
The season continues at home Thursday against Crofton and Monday at Bloomfield.
“We have 20 kids on the roster and good group of the kids return from last year’s Quad County Runner-Up team,” Whitmire said. “We have a lot of talent: the kids work hard and are coachable so I am confident in our ability to compete for the league championship again this year.
“Most importantly the kids play together as a team and you can tell they all pull for each other’s success.”
The Ponies will play 13 league games and compete in four tournaments to complete a 25- game slate.
“It is nice to have tournaments back on the schedule,” Whitmire said. “When you compete in tournaments it allows more opportunities for kids to compete and further their development. This will allow us to be more equipped for our end of the year league championship.”
Whitmire’s crew started 2-7 last year before getting hot at the right time.
“As I constantly remind the kids, it is not where you start, rather where we end,” he said.
Hartington Seniors and Juniors
Ryan Heimes, the Seniors head coach and Juniors assistant coach, will have plenty of talent to work with when the American Legion teams kick things off Sunday against Valentine and Monday at Wisner-Pilger.
“We have a lot of good athletic kids on the team,” Heimes said. “We have a lot of juniors, so it’s going to be hard to narrow down a starting lineup. Seniors we are short some guys, but thankfully we had a few kids that came from Laurel to play with us.”
Every team needs solid pitching — and a lot of it — to win. Depth could be a problem this year, though, Heimes said.
“A weak spot is going to be pitching. We have a lot of games in a short amount of time, and with pitch count it’s going to be important that we get quality time from all of our pitchers.”
The coach is feeling good about the team getting back to basics.
“You don’t realize how far kids fall when they don’t practice the sport all the time, and COVID made that hard last year,” Ryan Heimes said. “It makes it challenging this year cause we have to go over basic things because kids have to relearn simple elements of the game.”
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