Baseball Team Opens Season at Home on March 30

Winner/Colome club baseball team will open the season March 30 at home when they host Mission. The junior varsity game will start at 5 p.m. followed by the varsity game.

There are 13 returning lettermen on the team. The lettermen are Holden Thieman, Drew DeMers, Kelly O’Bryan, Ty Bolton, Riley Calhoon, Nick Lantz, Levi McClanahan, Dalton Baker, Carter Brickman, Jeremiah Yeaman, Andrew Laprath, Phillip Jorgensen and Joren Bruun.

There are 35 players on the team which includes 22 high school students and 13 junior high students.

The Royals are the defending Class B state champions and coach Drew Weber says the team is looking to defend its state title. Weber is starting his fourth year as head coach with Jon Hanson going into his fourth year as assistant coach. Helping until May will be J.J. Farner.

The only losses from last season’s state championship team are Reed Harter and Cameron Biggins.

Weber says the team’s biggest strengths are they have a lot of depth in pitching and have a lot of speed.

The main pitcher will be O’Bryan along with Ty Bolton, Carter Brickman, Holden Thieman, Riley Calhoon and Nick Lantz. Lantz will be the main catcher for the team.

“We have a lot of guys who can play a lot of spots and that is going to be a big help,” said the coach.

Weber says the team is able to put the bat on the ball and are really aggressive on the bases.

“We will miss having Reed at the top of the line up because he was so good at getting on base. We have other guys who we will look to and we expect Levi McClanahan to take up a big share along with Joren Bruun, Dalton Baker, Phillip Jorgensen, Jeremiah Yeaman and Andrew Laprath,” said Weber.

The coach added Drew DeMers will be a big key for the team as he is the team’s most consistent hitter and a great outfielder.

In practice the team has been working on a little bit of everything and have been working on a lot of hitting. There have been times they have been able to get outside for practice.

“You can tell we are motivated and excited about this season,” said Weber.

He noted this is a big year for the Winner/Colome team as Winner will be hosting the State B Legion tournament in July.

Weber says the goal is to win the regional and defend their state title.