Sean C. Morgan
Senior Gavin Kauffman will lead a strong stable of pitchers, which Coach Matt Matuszak said is the key to fielding a competitive Huskies baseball team this season.
Kauffman, a senior, was third in voting last year for Player of the Year in the Val-Co League. He was behind two players who are now playing college ball.
He was first-team all-league pitcher and hit .434, Matuszak said.
“He was our best pitcher last year even though we didn’t have him a lot because of an injury. I consider him a better baseball player than basketball player.”
Kauffman is joined by Colton Holly, a sophomore who was second-team all-league pitcher, along with Cory Hanks and Drayson Scott.
All four have varsity pitching experience, Matuszak said. “It all starts with pitching, and that’s kind of our philosophy.”
“Offensively, other than Gavin, we’re not going to be relying on a lot of experience,” Matuszak said. A lot of the young kids can swing the bat, but they don’t have the varsity experience.
The Huskies graduated six seniors last season and that leaves them reliant on younger talent moving up from last season’s junior varsity, which did well. Then there’s a new set of opponents.
The Huskies have set up a tough pre-league schedule, Matuszak said, to help set them up for play in the Sky-Em Conference.
“It’s a new league this year, and I don’t really know what to expect,” Matuszak said. The Huskies have played some of the teams before, but not regularly.
“Our goal is to win the league championship and put our name at the top of league our first year,” Matuszak said.
Around the league, “Sisters returns quite a bit, but I expect us to be right at the top as well,” Matuszak said. He expects the Sisters and the Huskies to compete for the top spot.
“I’m really excited about this season,” Matuszak said. “We’ve got a fun group that works really hard. I really like the vision, the goals and the work this team is putting in.”
Outside of pitching, the team will be young, Matuszak said. “But we’ve got really good young talent.”
On JV, they did really well last year in a tough league, he said. He expects them to come into the game and make a difference off the bat.
Last year, the Huskies varsity team tied for third in a tough league, Matuszak said. The top two teams made the semi-finals. The Huskies were one game away from first place with just a couple of league games left last season.
In fact, the Huskies beat both of the teams that made semi-finals, Philomath and Newport, during the regular season.
The Huskies lost the third-place tiebreaker and did not compete in state playoffs.
The varsity team hasn’t been set yet. Competing for spots on the team are seniors Bryce Seiber, Grason Reynolds, Taran Tyler, Isaiah Blake, Kauffman and David Deggelman; juniors Brandon Gregory, Jeremy White, Hunter Bidwell, Hanks and Kyle Winslow; and sophomores Kory Van Deusen, Aaron Moore, Jesus Andrade, Zach Gill, Holly, Scott, Nate Melcher, Austin Mizsei and Justin Rice.
Blake attends East Linn Christian Academy, which does not compete in baseball, so he plays at Sweet Home.
Freshmen include Steven Ulmer, Jonny Wyatt, Dylan Elder, Montana Baxter, J.T. Weld, Christian Voldbaek and Bryce Daniels.
The coaching staff returns assistants Dan Tow, Chris Miner and Josh Marvin. Lance Carter joins the coaching staff this year.