Kats aiming toward state title run

Posted: Wednesday, April 7, 2010 3:54 pm | Updated: 3:55 pm, Wed Apr 7, 2010.

by Peter Adelsen

After a disappointing end to last season losing in the sectional, the Kokomo Wildkats baseball team (22-8, 10-4 NCC in 2009) has high expectations for this season.

The Kats, preseason ranked 4th in class 4A, are bringing back 11 seniors, most with three or four years of experience on the varsity level with the 2009 North Central Conference champions.

"We have a lot of experience with our kids and most of the success that we've had over the last couple years has been because of the kids who are now seniors," Kokomo coach Steve Edwards said. "We have our top four pitchers back and we have basically eight of our nine starters back offensively."

The top four pitchers returning are seniors T.J. Weir (8-0 with .95 ERA in 2009), Colton Summers, Nolan Sandburn and junior Nick Lorenc.

In the opening game of the season, Summers threw a perfect game and struck-out seven batters against the Eastern Comets at Highland Park on only 68 pitches in the 6-0 win.

"We had a lot of excitement the first game, but I don't think anybody expects to see a no-hitter on the first game of the season," Edwards said. "He had command of all of his pitches and Colton was throwing all of his pitches really well and was hitting his spots and kept hitters off balance and that's pretty good against a number five ranked Eastern team in 2A."

Offensively in the opening game, the team had 11 hits. Weir hit a home run and a double, senior Nick Franklin went 3 for 3 with two doubles, senior Devin Schacht had two hits and senior Dylan Green had two hits in the win.

This year's goal, like the past seasons, is to win the North Central Conference, win the sectional and move on to the state tournament.

"We're very deep on the mound and we've been looking for this since 2007 when we were state runner-up," he said. "Last year and this year were years where we were looking at doing some damage. We fell short last year, but this year we have high expectations to advance in the tournament and do some damage in the tournament."

http://www.kokomoperspective.com/local_sports/high_school/kokomo/article_80e49ad0-427f-11df-84ce-001cc4c03286.html