By TYLER HENRY
Salina Post contributor
On the heels of a very successful 17-5 campaign that saw them claim a fifth-straight NCAA league title, the Southeast of Saline baseball team will return to the diamond to open their 2023 season on Saturday.
Despite graduating five seniors over the offseason, the Trojans return a ton of talent from last year’s squad, including two All-League selections in Landen Allen and Luke Gebhardt, and an All-League Honorable Mention in Drew Richardson.
There may be fewer power bats in this year’s Southeast lineup, but the Trojans are incredibly deep and very versatile, two features that should make them a formidable foe again this season.
“We should have a very balanced lineup this year,” SES head coach Mike Garretson said. “We have a lot of guys that can play different positions and we may not hit many home runs this year but we have guys that can put the ball in play and I like the athleticism of this team especially defensively.”
On the bump, the Trojan rotation will feature a few familiar faces in Landen Allen and Luke Gebhardt, who will be joined by a newcomer in Clay Center transfer Treytan Olson.
Alongside that trio, the SES bullpen will consist of arms like Trever Keller who saw time on the hill last year, and fresh faces like sophomore Daniel Sellers.
“If your pitchers throw strikes you give yourself a chance and I think that will ring true for us this season,” Garretson said. “After that, it’s on the defense to do their job.”
Like many of the athletics programs around Southeast, numbers for baseball are way up this year, and with a roster of 33 players vying for nine spots on the varsity field, competition in practice has never been better.
“There are a number of talented guys pushing for positions right now,” he said. “The energy from the younger guys is strong and they can really play ball which gives us a lot of choices. It will be interesting to see where the guys who don’t make the lineup early in the year end up.”
After falling in the second round of the regional tournament a season ago, the Trojan’s goal coming into this season is a simple, but lofty one.
“We’ve talked about what we want to accomplish this year and for us it’s simple: we want to get to the state tournament,” Garretson said. “We’ve got a lot of seniors and they all want to get to state, it’s a simple goal but a challenging proposition.”
At Saturday’s tournament in Kingman, Southeast will square off with Wichita Independent at 1:00 with the winner advancing to take on either Kingman or Sedgwick at 5:00.
For continuing coverage of Trojan baseball all season long, stay tuned to the Salina Post.