STLCC-Archers Baeball goes into full swing for spring season.
By: Ryan Obradovic
Staff Writer
The freshman heavy Archers started their baseball season off strong winning nine out of the first 10 games, despite having the majority of practices indoors because of weather.
Replacing former Archers coach, Tony Dattoli, first year head coach, Scott Goodrich, has led his team to a .614 winning percentage with a record of 27-17 as of late.
Although this is the first year as head coach for Scott Goodrich, this is not his first experience with coaching, or with the Meramec Archer’s program.
“I’ve been an assistant coach for the first 11 years that I was here, so I’m very familiar with the program, the players, and I recruit the majority of the players, so I think that’s what led to a seamless transition,” Goodrich said.
Although the Archers only have nine sophomores on their roster, they have a lot of team chemistry, freshman outfielder, Tommy Estopare said.
“Our team really seems to work well together and act as a family, making those tough wins that much better,” Estopare said.
Freshman infielder, Jacob Walters, leads the team in homeruns with eight. Walters also leads the team in runs scored with 37 followed closely by sophomore Colin Zurweller who has 36. Freshman, Brandon Gutzler, leading the team in RBIs with 41.
The Archers face a competitive schedule, however, Goodrich is pleased with the way his players have played up to this point.
“We have a level of resiliency that’s very strong. It’s up to the guys to find it within themselves to compete for the whole game, every game,” Goodrich said.
The Archers also have a great pitching staff, Goodrich said, with the average team ERA at 5.57 with 301 strikeouts.
Sophomore pitcher, Austin Simokaitis, leads the team in strikeouts with 43 in his 51.2 innings pitched, followed by sophomore pitcher, Matthew Hassenbeck, with 42 strikeouts in his 52.1 innings pitched.
The STLCC pitching staff has starters who can play midweek games and guys in the bullpen who come in and have a lot of success, Goodrich said.
The Archers also have four sophomore regional starting pitchers who are going to be hard to replace for next year, Goodrich said.
As with every team, there is always room for improvement for the upcoming year. Because of inclement weather conditions, the Archers got limited practice time on the field before the season began.
“The entire fall we’re going to work with the guys to implement on things that we are a bit lacking,” Goodrich said.
Although Goodrich said that there are many areas of improvement for the young Archers, there are also upsides to having a young team.
“Our lineup is very balanced with a good core group of players with us in the middle of the lineup that are freshman. So next year we’re going to have a leg up on our opponents,” Goodrich said. “We’ll certainly hit the ground running.”
