The Aplington-Parkersburg baseball team experienced somewhat of a rebuild, but finished as strong as it could a year removed from a state tournament appearance. With some key injuries affecting the pitching rotation, Head Coach Brett Kleespies says it took a while to find their stride.
“Our pitchers settled in mid-year, I think we kind of finally got into a groove and guys were pitching well,” Kleespies says. “Sully was pitching well and just was dealing with some injuries with Benny and Wes, so had Wes on the rotation and then got him back and threw him in, and you could tell he had some time off and wasn’t as sharp. So needed to stick him back out in the field where we could have Sully and Preston and those guys on the mound.”
Preston Janssen and Sully Janssen were the top pitchers with most of the starts, but Wes Shirk and Benny Waller were cycled throughout the rotation due to some injuries throughout the year. Three others recorded starts, and the staff as a whole recorded a 2.91 ERA with 161 strikeouts and 77 walks.
Working through some lineup changes, Kleespies says the second half of June was a turning point.
“I think it turned around at that Belle Plaine game. Guys started hitting the ball better and got Wes back, I think the week after that, I believe. And then unfortunately, Benny had an untimely hamstring issue that he had suffered in the Dike game and sidelined him for the rest of the season. So yeah, finished well, proud of the boys and that’s what we told them. The expectations were there in my head that we wanted to be where we’re at, and the goal was to be in Carroll this coming week and that’s everybody’s goal. But if you would have told me we won the last eight out of 11 games, it would have been tough for me to tell with the amount of young guys that we had on our roster.”
They went 15-12 and 6-5 in the NICL-Central.
Brett Kleespies interview:
