The Park Hill baseball team is slowly gearing up for what they hope will be a big season on the diamond this spring after three consecutive losing seasons.
The Trojans hope to have a more competitive team this year after a win-loss record of 13-22 last year. They return seven all-conference players, including senior infielder Tyson Kiser and pitcher Logan Hampton.
The Trojans expect to take another step forward in the pitching department. After giving up 6.9 runs per game in 2022, Park Hill managed to cut it down to 5.7 in 2023 and 5.4 runs last year.
“We have a couple of guys to get healthy on the mound,” said head coach Jon Davis. “Once we do, we feel like we have a lot of options to pitch and get outs. That was a strength for us last year, and we feel like we added a few more options after not losing any pitchers last year.”
The Trojans also have some players that could break out this season. Sophomore Spencer Beltram and junior Noah Vance will help add depth to the pitching rotation while Lex Young is a sophomore prospect on the infield.
Davis is in his third year as head coach and 25th year at Park Hill. He will be helped out by assistant coaches Jeremey Benninghoff and Joe Steele.
Park Hill hopes to improve in close games, where they faced struggles last year with nine losses by three runs or less. With a new season and some new weapons, the Trojans hope to win more one and two-run games to help them compete in conference and districts.
“This will be a very fun group to coach,” Davis said. “We have a junior and senior class with a lot of varsity experience. Our kids all genuinely like to be around each other and practice and play with a lot of confidence.”