By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
After a dominant 21-2 campaign in 2021, the Southeast of Saline baseball team wasted no time getting back to their winning ways, and will carry an 11-3 overall record into the home stretch of their regular season.
The Trojans have impressed in all three aspects of the game, culminating in a run differential of +83 with six games left to go before the postseason.
“Our pitchers have thrown strikes and that’s going to give you a chance to win every game,” SES head coach Mike Garretson said. “Our schedule is tough and every team we’ve played has been very capable. We’ve been in some really tight ones and we’ve played some really good baseball.”
Southeast’s wrecking crew of an offense has been led by two batters at the top of the lineup in Luke Gebhardt and Evan Nickelson each batting north of .500 more than halfway through the season.
“Luke and Evan were very productive last year but you don’t ever expect someone to go out there and do what they’ve done this season,” Garretson said.
Gebhardt’s stat line looks as if it was pulled straight out of a video game simulation. The junior has hit .627, slugged over 1,000, and driven in 29 runs thanks to four long bombs and 13 extra-base hits in just 14 games.
Nickelson hasn’t been far behind, batting .560 and slugging .860, tacking on 23 more driven in and operating as a reliable arm in the Trojan pitching staff while providing rock-solid defense at the hot corner.
“Evan is a phenomenal baseball player all around,” he said. “His defense at third has been tremendous, he can hit for contact, he can hit for power and he can pitch well too. I’ve been in awe of what he’s been able to do this year.”
While Southeast has surprised many by muscling out 14 home runs in as many games this season, that aggressive approach at the plate has also led to a new high watermark in strikeouts, with 105 Ks on the year.
“We need to cut down on our strikeouts,” Garretson said. “We still come up empty too much at the plate, and if we can minimize that we’re going to improve by leaps and bounds.”
On the hill, the SES pitching staff has looked borderline unhittable at times this season, anchored by a true ace in Landen Allen.
Allen holds a 1.8 ERA allowing just 5 earned runs through 19.1 innings and adds 26 strikeouts to just 16 walks to that loaded resume as well.
With just a few weeks to go in the regular season, the Trojans will face an all-league slate of doubleheaders against Minneapolis, Ellsworth, and Russell giving SES a shot at another league title before this year’s postseason.
For continuing coverage of SES baseball all spring long, stay tuned to the Salina Post.