MORGANTOWN — After a 6-10 record last season, head coach Wes Hopkins and the Trinity Christian School baseball team are optimistic about this year’s outlook. With a balanced mix of youth and experience, the Warriors aim to begin building a winning program high on the hill in Sabraton.
A mix of five freshmen and sophomores and four juniors and seniors in the starting lineup make up the nine starters for Hopkins and his club.
Freshman Parker Hopkins and sophomore Brock Shuba will both take the mound for TCS starters. Joining the two underclassmen will be juniors Trenton Temperio and Will McPherson.
Hopkins and McPherson will also hold duty behind the plate as catchers, joined by freshman Ryan Parker, who mainly occupies first base on defense.
“Goals this year are to start framing on top of the foundation that we dug and poured last year. Although young. we are talented and deep in most positions including and probably the most important; pitching,” coach Hopkins said. “We are trying to compete and qualify for the OVAC playoffs again this year after making it to the semi-finals last year. Competing for the sectional title and ultimately bringing it to Trinity Christian is high on the list as well as making a run at the regional title as well.”
With the pitching will come solid defense to back it up, as Hopkins says he is confident in his team’s ability on that side of the field. Speed and contact will highlight the offense.
“Strengths of our team this year is depth in all positions, we have a good pitching staff, defense is pretty sound, we have speed throughout the lineup as well as good bats,” Hopkins said. “We are vulnerable in our maturity, although our overall talent and baseball IQ is a lot higher than last year, we could experience some growing pains with our youth.”
Despite the younger lineup, Hopkins and his squad have their eyes set on a goal and are ready to work towards it as a team.
“We are playing a 28-game schedule this year which should be challenging against sectional, regional, and non-conference opponents. I wanted to build a schedule so that we would be battle-tested long before the sectional playoffs come around,” he said. “Every program wants to compete and win at the State Championship level and we are no different in that aspect. The main goal is trying to keep the players reeled in and not to get caught up in the noise, we work hard in silence and hopefully, our play will do the talking for us.”
The Warriors opened their season with a 19-0 over Hundred High School on Thursday.
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