By Keeghan Gittins
For The New Era
Kyle Zajic was named Sweet Home baseball’s Most Valuable Player for the second straight year at the team’s awards night on May 29.
“I’m very proud of our guys this year,” said Coach Evan Teter of his young team, which nine underclassmen out of 16 players on the varsity roster, and only two seniors.
“They entered the season with an outsider’s expectation of maybe only pulling out a win or two, and made a postseason push.”
Zajic, a sophomore, led the team at the plate, batting .444 on the season, despite only playing 20 of the 26 games. He also led Sweet Home with 28 hits, 25 runs and was the only Husky to have a home run.
In Zajic’s 79 plate appearances he only struck out 10 times.
Zajic was also a threat as a fielder and pitcher being named OWC honorable mention infield. For every inning he pitched he had at least 1.06 strikeouts.
All that was reflected in his other two awards, the Big Stick Award (best batter), the Co-Hustle award.
Pitcher of the Year went to junior Luke Rosa, who threw a total of 52 innings, facing 270 batters, striking out 47.
Opponents batted .285 against Rosa.
Rosa also was awarded the Co-Gold Glove winner, which goes to the best fielder(s); the other Gold Glove honoree was sophomore Tregon Francis.
On offense the two were stellar: Francis led the team with 11 doubles and Rosa with a close second with 10. Rosa was tied with Cohen Gutierrez with 23 RBI’s
Rookie of the Year went to freshman Damon Lawrence.
Lawrence led the team in singles, with 26; the next closest was another freshman, Conner Northern, with 19. He finished third in runs with 21, and in a three-way tie for total hits between Rosa and Francis with 27.
Lawrence led the team with nine stolen bases. He also led the team in hit by pitches with 10, the next closest was Bradyn McClure with five.
Sophomore Kaydence Greer and Zajic were awarded the Hustle Award for always pushing hard no matter what.
McClure was named Most Improved Player, as he played all around the field – pitcher, left field, right field, shortstop and second base.
As a team the Huskies batted .298, and had 205 total hits – 156 of them were singles, along with 43 doubles,five triples and the home run. Sweet Home recorded 127 RBIs and scored 155 runs.
The pitching rotation of Rosa, Zajic, Lynkin Royer and Gutierrez threw 137 strikeouts, and opponents batted .324 against the four.
Second-year winners were Kyle Zajic, Eddie Taylor, Luke Rosa, Cohen Guitierrez.
First-year letter winners were Hunter Daley, Kaidence Greer, Damon Lawrence, Bradyn McClure, Conner Northern, Cole Ogbin and Jake Smith.
Teter said the Huskies gained a lot of experience, which is what the team lacked coming into the season.
“They found ways to be successful despite the roadblocks in their way. They have put in the work that will set us up for success for years to come. I’m excited to see how hard they work this offseason. We are able to return all of our starters next year and have a strong freshmen class coming up.
.“We are looking to get guys more work this off-season in terms of doing bullpens and getting them in the cages, and just being more consistent throughout the year.
“Our team was improved in almost every aspect compared to years past. Now we are just looking to level everything up. I think the guys are starting to buy into what we’re doing and they can see what a dangerous team we can be moving forward.”