South Baseball Preview
J. C. Tilton
Despite temperatures in the 40's and a brief shower of hail, the Twin Valley South boys baseball team was getting prepared for the upcoming season. Outside on such a gloomy day it was difficult to think of baseball, but with the open of the season just around the corner, the team was working on fielding and hitting at the WABO diamonds.
South has several returning lettermen from last season, Wes Rehmert, Brad Oney, Weston Bassler, Corey Bassler, Spencer Irvin, Jarrod Hickey, Chad Wentlander. On the other hand they lost shortstop Dustin Bassler (now at Wright State); Eli at centerfield; Derrick Smith right field and pitcher; Calvin Bryant and Tony Schmidt. Some new faces at varsity will be Senior Steve Bowman; Brett Marker will see time as well. Coach Wright sees the Junior class as being the leading core group.
An obvious strength for the team is having Wes Rehmert back as pitcher. Coach Wright also commented that several players have played varsity since they were freshmen - “the two Bassler's, Rehmert, and Ony - he hit the ball really well last year.” He added, “We should be pretty balanced this year, pretty competitive. Right now we are looking to fill the holes that were left by the guys graduating last year.” When asked who would fill all-state Dustin Bassler's shoes at shortstop, the coach cagily replied, “We are still looking at that, we are still evaluating different options.”
Covington, Bethel, and Tri County North are teams that Coach Wright foresees as being at the top of the league. “These are teams that are always competitive. Now I know that Covington has everyone coming back, so they will be really good.”
The South fastpitch team returns some solid players but they have some a big question to be answered. They will be returning some solid starters: Kali DuChemin Jr. catcher; Kim Deleranko Jr. Third base; Dani Lipps Sr. centerfield; also getting some varsity time were Maggie McCollum (pitcher this season); Stacy Robbins and Leslie Smith. Two freshmen are expected to contribute - Brittany Wysong and Brook Burns as well as first year sophomore Callie Bryant. They have two young pitchers that will have to step forward this season, one is a sophomore the other a freshman. Neither have pitched at the varsity level so that is a question mark for the team.
Coach Darcy Robinson sees the team as being athletic and having good defensive players. The team should be able to hit well, although some of the first year players will have to adjust to the speed of fast pitch. She sees DuChemin behind the plate as a big asset to the team. Again she sees the learning curve of her first year pitchers as being key to the success of the team. In the league the toughest competition will be coming from Arcanum and Bethel. Although Arcanum's Denlinger has a knee injury and is still recovering, they are still a good team. Bradford and Covington were good teams last season, but they graduated some talent so they may have a drop off.
Both the boys and the girls teams will start their seasons Monday, March 27th at Troy Christian High School. South team schedules are now online at: <http://www.tvs.k12.oh.us/tvshs.html> click on athletics. Comments: email: Chris Tilton
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