JUN 7, 2016 LEADWOOD PIRATES TO RELY ON PITCHING (Audio)
(Leadwood, MO) The Leadwood Pirates baseball team of the Babe Ruth League expects to rely on a very deep rotation over the summer season. Pirates head coach, Justin Nettles introduces us to his top tier collection of area pitchers…
“Dalton Thompson from Viburnum, he’s signed with Missouri Baptist. Jacob Meinershagen from West County. He’s pitched for me for a number of years. Cory Ramsey from Bunker. We picked up Austin Earnest this year, he had a phenomenal freshman year in college. Holden Anderson from Ellington is signed with a school in Arkansas. So, we’ve got several arms that we can rely on.”
He says the team’s diversity continues onto the offensive side of the Pirates…
“Well, we have Zach Price from Potosi who will be behind the plate for us. Blake Barlow, Jared Jones, and Jacob Meinershagen are there from West County. Keenan Johnson from Central, Dayton Sheppard of Kingston will be in the outfield for us. Ty Simily, there’s a young name. He’ll be up this year and we have a lot of confidence in him….When you get to this time of year, you don’t always have everyone there so we wanted to have as much talent as we possibly could.”
With a collection of premiere pitchers and a wide array of talent at the plate, Nettles emphasizes defense as the key for Leadwood…
“If we throw strikes and we catch the baseball behind those guys, we will be fine. We have a lot of talented arms and we feel like that’s where we can separate ourselves from the competition. we are hoping that stays true, but that’s why you play the games because you never know.”
Every team in the Babe Ruth League has a wealth of talent. Nettles knows that makes every game that much more important…
“We could go through and win any given night, or we could lose any given night against those teams,” Nettles said. “We have to just come ready to play and put our best foot forward and see what we can do.”
The Leadwood Pirates are next on the diamond on Friday against Arcadia Valley.
