The 2024 White Pine High School baseball season came to an end in the 2A South Regional tournament.
The Bobcats went 18-7 overall and 10-3 in league play, good for third place.
Although the team was unable to reach the State tournament, it was a memorable season for the program, winning its first regional playoff game in about 10 years.
“One of our big goals was to get to State and we unfortunately fell short of that,” Bobcats head coach Quinn Ewell said. “But what was pretty awesome is we were able to go to regionals and we were able to win a game there. We haven’t won a regional game in over a decade. So that was really cool to achieve. To see the program, it just keeps getting better and better every year.”
The White Pine High School Bobcats went 18-7 overall and 10-3 in league play, winning their first regional playoff game in about 10 years.
Despite losing the first game of the playoffs to No. 2 Needles, the No. 3 seeded Bobcats were able to defeat No. 4 Awaken Christian 14-4. White Pine jumped out to a 6-0 lead after two innings. Awaken Christian fought back with four runs of their own in the third, but the Bobcats bounced back, scoring three in the fourth and five in the fifth to get that first playoff victory.
Freshman Maddox Sedlacek went 3-for-4 with two doubles, four RBIs and four runs scored to pace the Bobcat offense. Sophomore Jacob Hall went 1-for-1 with three walks and scored all four times.
Junior Tucker Maestes walked three times in his four plate appearances and scored three times. Both Maestes and senior Ryan Walker stole three bases.
“It was really good to see that we can play to our expectations and beat the teams that we were supposed to and then hopefully, trying to get us momentum to go and challenge the tougher teams in the conference,” Ewell said on the motivation of what a playoff victory can do.
That playoff victory was one of 18 wins for the Bobcats this season, which also marks two more than the 16 wins the Bobcats got two seasons ago.
Ewell said to have that success, it takes the work, not only during the season, but during the offseason.
“It’s pretty amazing because we ended up losing around eight players last year. Five of those were main starting positions,” said Ewell, who even guided this team to win its first 10 games and 16 of the first 17 this season. “Usually, most teams would have to rebuild from that type of a loss.
“It was really cool to see this team because of the time they put in doing summer ball and a lot of kids coming to open gyms. They were able to achieve that and for that extra time, it really paid off for them.”
One of the big reasons the Bobcats went 18-7 was because this team stayed healthy, only losing one player to injury, in comparison to last season when the team was ravished by injuries, especially early on.
Ewell said although the injury bug did not affect them as much, the role players off the bench were ready to come in when needed in the event a player goes down.
“Having the whole team for most of the year, it really helps out and it is nice to have,” Ewell said. “There are players that are ready to step in positions if we’re missing players. They are willing to step in and be able to fill that gap. So, I felt like we had a pretty good team that could do that.”
Having that depth is crucial to any team. Whether it is at the plate, on the field or on the mound, having flexibility is key.
However, in particular to this team this season, Ewell said it was pitching that was able to stay strong.
“We had a really good depth of pitching and that’s nice to have and not to be worried if someone’s struggling that other guy can fill in that spot,” Ewell said. “That’s one of the big parts of the game is the pitching.”
Leading the Bobcats’ pitching staff was Walker and Maestes. Walker went 6-4 in 13 appearances with a 4.24 earned run average, while Maestes went 4-2 with a 2.33 ERA. Maestes recorded 50 strikeouts compared to just 14 walks and allowed 11 earned runs across 33 innings pitched. Walker struck out 47 hitters, compared to giving up 22 walks in 38 innings of work.
“They came in and did their job and did well,” Ewell said of Walker and Maestes. “I said it’s good because the other pitchers were young. Jacob is young, Maddox is young, so to have them next year and see their progression improve is going to be exciting.”
Walker was one of two seniors on this team this season. In his three seasons at the varsity level, he hit .378 with 71 hits, 83 runs and 39 RBIs in 71 games played. On the pitching side, he accumulated a 12-11 record in 42 appearances, totaling 132.2 innings across three seasons.
“It was nice to have a solid player for four years,” Ewell said of Walker. “He came in committed and dedicated himself. To see the work pay off for him to have successful seasons is cool to be a part of.”
As a result of losing two players to graduation, this team has nearly 90% of this year’s roster returning next spring.
Although there are still roughly eight months before the season begins, Ewell is optimistic that his team can continue its success after this season.
“It’s exciting. My only concern, I guess, is hopefully they’re willing to want to progress and put the work in during the offseason,” Ewell said. “We’re trying to get a summer ball team going again. So hopefully most of them will be a part of that, come to the open gyms because that’s kind of the biggest factor in having a successful season is that out-of-season workout.
“That’s my biggest hope. I mean, they’re a team that can be really dominant, but they still need to come in, play a few more, and do a little bit in the offseason. They will be a force to be reckoned with.”
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