Southwest baseball team finishes campaign at 6-17

By Kyle Troutman [email protected]

Wrapping up a six-win season, Southwest baseball coach Derek Mann said the Trojans gained valuable experience throughout the spring, particularly among a young roster that will form the core of the program moving forward.

“Our season was overall pretty decent,” Mann said. “We had a lot of young guys get valuable varsity experience.”

Mann said the team’s biggest growth came in its understanding of the game and its approach during competition.

“We improved on our baseball knowledge and our mentality during a game,” Mann said.

While progress was made, Mann said he would have liked to see the team handle the emotional swings of games more consistently.

“In a lot of games, we let the ups and downs of the game affect us too much,” Mann said. “I would have liked us to be more even keeled instead of riding the emotional roller coaster of each game.”

One of the season’s highlights came in conference play against Galena.

“We played a conference game middle of the season against Galena,” Mann said. “It was a well pitched game on both sides, and we ended coming out on top, with sophomore Dom Sierra pitching a complete game with 10 strikeouts with 1 walk and 1 earned run. Our defense played very well and we had some big hits to come out with a 2-1 win.”

Mann said the team’s two seniors made important contributions in different ways.

“Logan Gregory was a four-year starter for us and has been one of our best players since he stepped on the field as a freshman,” Mann said. “He was a top of the order bat and one of our main guys on the mound. He led our team in many ways and will be missed.

“Our other senior was Eli Tripodi, who was a dugout guy always helping keep the team up and in good spirits. Eli’s dedication to the program and his teammates was unmatched. Everybody loved him, and his fun going attitude will be missed.”

Mann said the program will rely heavily on its returning underclassmen next season.

“We had a lot of underclassmen that played for us this year, and that was the bulk of our team,” Mann said. “We started nearly 7 sophomores a game this year, so we will depend on them a lot coming into their junior seasons.”

Mann said the team fell short of its goals but showed improvement throughout the year.

“I don’t think we met our team goals this year,” Mann said. “But, as a team we got better every day and started playing a lot better baseball towards the end of the year.”

Looking ahead, Mann said the focus for next season is straightforward.

“We want to leave it all on the field and to go out and compete day in and day out,” Mann said.

Southwest finished the season with a 6-17 record, but Mann said the experience gained by a young roster should provide a foundation for future growth.