Baseball preview: WFC Warriors will look for arms, continued improvement

Adding a few wins year over year has been the goal for the Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell baseball co-op since former Woodland standout Dan Essman took over as head coach after a one-win 2021 season, and it’s a goal at which the Warriors mostly have succeeded.

Improving on 2023′s 6-16 campaign, however, will require WFC to overcome what looks to be, at least to start the season, some deficiencies in the pitching department outside of ace Tucker Hill.

“I’m just hoping to get more wins than we got last year. Being .500 would be fantastic, but just improving, and hopefully we can get a little further than we did the last few years in the postseason,” Essman said.

“We had some good seniors last year with pitching, and now we’re trying to develop pitchers this year who’ve never really pitched before. So it’s going to be a process this year, but our defense is looking pretty good, and our hitting is looking pretty good, too.

“Hopefully that can counter the pitching this year a little bit.”

Hill, fellow seniors Reed Frazier and Dylan Jenkins as well as junior Connor Dodge are the top returners for Woodland/Flanagan-Cornell, and all should see time on the mound. Frazier’s time, however, appears limited, as the projected No. 2 starter is scheduled to be shut down a couple weeks into the season by a planned medical procedure, per Essman.

“[Tucker] and Reed are going to be our No. 1 pitchers this year; Reed only for a few games, but Tucker throughout the whole year,” Essman said. “Hopefully [Hill] can pitch well during conference, because he’s going to be taking the ball a lot during our conference games this year, probably not too many nonconference.

“We have high expectations for Tucker.”

Hill earned Times All-Area Baseball Team second-team accolades last spring, pitching 44 1/3 innings and holding a 3.00 earned-run average despite his hard-luck 1-6 record. Of particular note was his success down the stretch, keeping his team in games against top Tri-County Conference contenders Marquette and Henry-Senachwine.

Along with 2B Hill, OF Jenkins, C/UT Dodge and 1B Frazier, Warriors senior OF Jonathan Moore, junior 2B Theron Essman, junior 1B Sam Schmitz and sophomore IF/OF Nolan Price will be asked to take the bump and log innings despite limited experience.

“There are a few kids who have pitched a few innings for us in there,” coach Essman said. “We’re trying to work on some offspeed [pitches] for them, ... and hopefully we can get some good innings out of these kids. I think we will. They’ve improved since open gyms a few months ago.”

Hill also batted .290, second among returners this season to Jenkins’ .305 average. They, along with clutch-hitting Dodge, will lead a Warriors lineup that projects to be better at contact and speed than raw slugging power.

“The small game,” Essman said when asked his team’s offensive philosophy. “Get on base, bunting them over, you know, hopefully get a hit here and there. That’s kind of who we are. We’re not the big, hit-home-run-type people.

“We’ll get singles and hopefully take advantage of errors, just put it in play and see what we can do.”

Junior OF Eric Miramontes, senior DH Dylan Denham and sophomore OF Brian Delara figure into the team’s lineup plans, as well. So could a few of the six freshmen in the program – Brezdyn Simons, Noah Lopez, Cade Vickers, Jack Starkey, Tanner Norman and Reece Pelnarsh – with C Simons and IF/OF Pelnarsh already singled out as leading candidates thanks to their defensive prowess.

“Everything’s a tossup right now,” Dan Essman said, “and all these freshmen still have a chance to play varsity. They can fight for a spot on the varsity roster.”