Sean C. Morgan
Senior Daniel Virtue was named the Huskies Most Valuable Player during their annual baseball awards banquet Thursday evening.
Coach John Best presented the brand new Wolverine Award to Senior Devin Stafford. He said the award is about “inspiration.” The team would huddle during games, and the boys just started yelling “wolverines.”
“Sometimes it’s what we needed to get a rally going,” Best said.
Award winners were selected by the coaching staff.
The MVP award isn’t just about statistics on the field, Best said. It’s about being a leader, and after three years on varsity, Virtue is “a fantastic person” and “absolutely wonderful baseball player.”
Most Improved went to junior Keegan Holly, Best said. Holly played OK last year with a “lousy” summer, then became a drag bunt specialist and developed into one of the Huskies’ best players this season.
Junior Austin James and Senior Keanu Aiona tied for the Hustle Award.
Leading the team in hits, batting average and RBIs, while fielding and throwing well, sophomore Colton Smith won the Rookie of the Year award. Hitting a .510 in league, he also won the Big Stick award.
“He was everything we anticipated and more,” Best said.
The Golden Glove award went to senior Kobe Olson. The award goes to the player coaches hope the ball flies to because they know it’ll be an out.
Stafford, who pitched complete games in the play-in round and first round of playoffs, 16 innings, won the Pitcher of the Year award. He won eight games and had three saves. He led the team in innings pitched and had the lowest earned run average, 1.91.
Third-year letter winners were seniors Devin Stafford, Daniel Virtue and Keanu Aiona. All three were selected to play in the All Star Series.
Only one other 4A team had as many selections, Best said.
Winning their second letters were seniors Austin James and Kobe Olson and junior Nick Marler.
First-year lettermen were sophomores Nate Virtue and Colton Smith, juniors Fisher Anderson and Keegan Holly and senior Jon Elder.
The Huskies finished their season losing to La Grande 4-0 in the state quarterfinals. They defeated South Umpqua 4-3 in the play-in round and then Newport 10-3 in the first round of playoffs.
On the way there, Sweet Home finished second in the Sky Em League with an 11-4 record. Sisters, 12-3, finished first, and Junction City, 9-6, finished third.
Among Sky-Em teams, Henley knocked Junction City out of the playoffs 8-4 in the first round. Sisters reached the quarterfinals and lost 6-5 to Philomath, which lost to Henley in the semifinals.
After beating Sweet Home, La Grande went on to beat Astoria 7-2 in the semifinals and then Henley 8-5 to win the state tournament Saturday afternoon.
This season, the Huskies hosted their first playoff game, and won for the first time since 1991, said Assistant Coach Jim Hagle. They had their most wins in a season since 1991.
Sweet Home was ranked fifth in the state, with four of its six losses to top-eight teams in the 4A and 5A, Hagle said. The Huskies had seven all-league selections and four all-state selections.
The team batting average was .362 during league and .338 overall, Hagle said. Sweet Home had 184 singles and 50 doubles, an averge of two per game. The Huskies hit one triple and seven home runs. Total they had 214 hits, an average of nine per game, and 180 runs, an average of 7.2 per game.
They ran and scored 13 suicide squeeze plays and stole 53 bases, while turning 15 double plays – one every two games.
They gave up an average of 4.4 runs per game, Hagle said. Stafford had a 1.9 ERA. Anderson had a 1.95 ERA; Daniel Virtue, 2.08; and Smith, 2.9.
The team had a .941 fielding percentage during league and 9.4 overall.
Topping off their athletic achievements, the Huskies were fifth among 4A teams in academic performance, carrying an average GPA of 3.32.
“By making playoffs and winning, we were able to practice for two more weeks and let a number of underclassmen get valuable time with the varsity on and off the field,” Hagle said.
“What a great foundation to build on. Not only in the baseball program but in the community, the support we received this year was amazing and it was great to see the community members support he baseball program at such a high level.
“The excitement from our fans was amazing and really means a ton to the kids and the coaches.”