Central baseball looks to have good season

Next month, the Central baseball team will begin their 2018 campaign. They are coming off a disappointing end to last season, where the Eagles got bounced in the first round of districts, falling to Burke 10-1. This, season Central will look to return to the state tournament for the first time in 11 years.  

In order to return to play for a state title, Central will look to replace a lot of lost production. “We did loose a lot of our players, actually lost seven starters about, give or take a few innings,” head coach Gerald Kreber said. Kreber, who enters his fifth year as the Central head coach with a 47-62 record, has seen some encouraging signs this offseason though. He said, “We did have a really good junior legion team for the younger kids, they played about 50 games, and we had a really good fall baseball program, and we also have a really good weight training program and we are hopeful that it will help our younger kids develop.“I hope we are doing a good job of developing in the weight room, making sure their arms are durable and strong and ready,” Kreber said of his younger players. 

Last year, a junior, and a sophomore led the team in batting. Current Senior Mike Cantu batted .667, although he only came to the plate 6 times. Current sophomore Jake Roberts batted .337 on 77 plate appearances. Of the other three players to bat over .300, two were seniors, and one is current senior Brenden Anderson, who hit .304 on 102 plate appearances. On the mound, Central lost nearly 60% of their total production last year due to graduation. The best picher who did not graduate last year(in terms of ERA) was junior Tomo Bressho. He allowed 3.20 earned runs per nine innings in 15.1 innings pitched. As a team the Eagles had a 4.02 ERA. 

“Our goal is always to get to the state tournament, to qualify for the state tournament,” Kreber said. Obviously a lot will depend on how his players respond with seeing more playing time. But the head coach thinks, “if you know you have a couple really dominant pitchers you can get there, and so we have an opportunity to have some really good pitching, even though we lost some, and so we are hopeful that our pitching can get us into a position to win.”