Roadrunners ready to open season

Sedalia, Mo.- The State Fair Community College (SFCC) Roadrunners baseball team is hard at work preparing for the upcoming season. Last season, SFCC finished with a 32-17 record and a trip to the Region 16 Tournament.

Head coach Jud Kindle saw a lot of improvement from his team throughout the fall season.

"The biggest improvement that I saw was our physicality," said Kindle. "Our guys put on weight and added strength. I feel like they are explosive on the offensive side. We broke our swings down a little bit. I feel like those have come around. I feel like we will be in pretty good shape offensively. Coach (Bill) Cain has done a great job with our pitchers. All our velocities are up. We are excited to see what they look like."

Coach Kindle expects this year's team to be built around pitching and playing good defense.

"I think that you will see a similar style of baseball to what we did last year," said Kindle. "Offensively, we have some home run hitters in the middle of our lineup, we are also going to have to do the small things to manufacture runs. We are going to have to steal some bases and have quality at-bats. We are also going to have to take some walks and capitalize on some aggressive baserunning."

Coach Kindle expects the leadership on this year's team to come from a variety of different places.

On the offensive side, you have Collin Ross (of Branson, Missouri) and Devin Wassmann (of Platte City, Mo.) those are our two top returning hitters. They have some leadership skills. Wassmann is a quiet kid, but his work ethic is unreal. Collin Ross is a little more social, but I feel like both those guys will help lead our offense. On the pitching side, I have to say that our freshman class is very deep, but we have sophomore Hunter Jones (of Branson, Mo.) and sophomore Jacob Tellman (of Jefferson City, Mo.) who were two of our best arms last year and I expect them to lead the way for this year. It is good to have those guys back."

In addition to Ross and Wassmann, Kindle expects contributions from a few other different position players.

"Carter Rice (of Sedalia, Mo.) had a great fall behind the plate," said Kindle. "He also possesses some leadership skills. Connor Rice (of Sedalia, Mo.) also returns and was an above .300 hitter last year and played a very good third base. If you look at newcomers, Jake Kruse (of Smithville, Mo. is going to be a big bat in our lineup."

Coach Kindle also expects contributions from several newcomers on the mound like Mason Kates of Lee's Summit, Mo., Tanner Patterson of Iberia, M0. Brayden Beckmann of Ashland, MO., and Evan Bishop of Boonville, MO.

The Roadrunners will once again face a difficult schedule which is scheduled to begin on Feb. 9 at home with a game against Kansas City Kansas Community College.

"I like how our schedule sets up this year," said Kindle. "This is the first year where we are starting early enough where we will get all 56 games in. After our game against Kansas City Kansas, we will play four games in Dallas where we will continue to try to figure out who we are as a team."

The Roadrunners are scheduled to open their always tough Region 16 schedule at Missouri State University-West Plains on Feb. 27.

"Top to bottom our Region will be very strong," said Kindle. "Our Region is one of the best the country. It is always a dogfight. I am excited to see what we can do in our Region."

SFCC is in the process of constructing a spring sports complex, which will include a baseball field on campus. It will open sometime this spring.

"We are super excited about our new facilities," said Kindle. "This will allow our student-athletes to have access to batting cages and a field on campus, so that we do not have to drive across town. Along with the new dorms, it will help us in recruiting. We will have the best facilities in our Region."

Coach Kindle has a big goal in mind for his team this season. He would like to see the Roadrunners win the Region. He feels that the team is strong in the areas that you need to be to accomplish that goal.

"We just need to get hot at the right time, kind of like we did last year," said Kindle. "We have to be consistent. I think our guys have bought into the vision and the expectations that we have for them. We have to play consistent baseball all year long."

David Rohrbach

SFCC Athletics