As the 2024 spring season rolls on for the White Pine High School baseball team, they are clinging to one of its best seasons in program history.
With a 17-3 record, including 10-2 in 2A South League action, the Bobcats have already surpassed their 2022 squad that reached 16 wins.
White Pine, who went undefeated in its six non-league games, used that momentum heading into 2A South play winning its first 10 league games from March 22 to April 12.
In those 10 league games, the Bobcats averaged 13.2 runs per game while their pitching and defense combined to allow just 2.2 runs per game.
Their undefeated streak to begin the season came to an end 10 games into the season on April 2 in a non-league game against Elko, who plays one level above White Pine in the 3A.
However, Bobcats head coach Quinn Ewell said his team has continued to show the benchmark of success as the season progresses.
“They’ve been coming out and getting better every week doing a great job improving,” Ewell said. “What’s really nice to see when the ball’s hit, they know exactly where to go. We’re getting guys out, throwing them out at home from the outfield, we’re turning double plays.
“They’re really coming along and looking good. They’re basically getting to that really good level of ball where you can just let them police themselves.”
Defense leads to championships and part of defense is pitching.
The strong suit to this year’s pitching staff has been the durability by staying healthy, which was an Achilles’ Heel in last year’s team.
Senior Ryan Walker has led the way with a 6-1 record in 10 appearances and a strong 1.44 earned run average. In 34 innings pitched, the senior has struck out 44 hitters and has allowed just seven earned runs.
Also allowing seven earned runs this season is junior Tucker Maestes, who is 3-1 in eight appearances with a 2.04 earned run average in 24 innings.
The depth of the pitching staff is primarily rounded out by sophomore Jacob Hall and freshman Maddox Sedlacek.
Also, both Hall and Sedlacek each have ERAs over 6.00. They have winning pitching records of 2-0 and 2-1, respectively.
“The pitching’s been really strong this year, which has really helped out,” Ewell said. “Having a good depth chart on pitching helps. The guys put a lot of work in the offseason to be ready.”
As a result of the pitching having success, it sets up the offense, which is fueled by the four pitchers as well as junior Dylan Cessford, whom all five have batting averages at or above 0.400, meaning that they are recording hits at least 40% of the time.
In addition, all five have at least 20 hits, led by Maestes’ 25 and Sedlacek leads the team with 26 RBIs.
Despite the offense at the top, it is the entire lineup that has to step up.
Part of the adjustments that were needed was to focus more on having a plan at plate, centered on hitting the gaps, whether it is down the lines or in right center field or left center field.
“We’re trying to get them to be a little bit more disciplined at the plate,” Ewell said. “When they’re hitting more towards the gap and fixing those mistakes, we’re not just swinging the bat. We’re really trying to hit it where we want it to go versus just hopefully, we’re hitting it.”
Having that attention to detail is what has elevated White Pine to be one of the top teams in the league.
However, their undefeated league record was put to test against another undefeated team in league at home against Needles on April 19. White Pine was at 10-0 and Needles was 8-0.
White Pine’s undefeated league record ultimately came to an end as the Bobcats lost 11-2. Despite putting up two early runs in the first inning, that was all the Bobcats could put together against one of the top teams in the league for the last couple of years.
A big part of that loss was the Bobcats also committed seven errors, which led to seven unearned runs.
Despite the loss, Ewell said that there were takeaways as to where this team stands against the top team in the league.
“The biggest thing we learned is that we can compete with them,” he said. “I mean they beat us, but they didn’t beat us at our best. So, we know we’re right there and we just got to clean up a few things, so that the next time we play, we can be right there to win it.”
That next opportunity to face Needles can come as early as the division tournament, which begins May 6.
However, White Pine still has two games remaining, both against Lake Mead on May 3 to end the season.
Ewell said he wants his team to continue to stay hot and maintain its level of progression heading into the postseason.
“The biggest thing is we don’t want to plateau in our progression here,” he said. “We want to peak at the right point. We want to make sure that we’re improving every day in practice, every day in these games, so that when we’re at regionals, we’re improving all the way versus plateauing and leveling out because that’s where we’ll get beat.”
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