Treynor Baseball

Bob Mantel, Treynor baseball coach, told the club that they had 23 players out for baseball this summer, with one senior and two 8^th graders.  Since the Treynor baseball field is under construction, they played all their games on the road this year.  Practices and “home” games were played in Oakland. 

The new Treynor field should be completed this fall and should be the nicest field in the conference.  Plans are to have dual batting cages and a windscreen along the outfield fence.  Players all receive a Treynor bat ad a batting cage jacket.  They added new uniforms last year, so they are the only team in the league with two uniforms.

One advantage from practicing in Oakland was that the players were together a lot.  They started the season slow and were 5-10 at mid-season.  Then they had a 13 run streak until they lost in the District.  Treynor ended 11-3 in conference, tied for the lead with Tri-Center.

Coach Mantel has been trying to play more games each year, with tough non-conference games scheduled early.  League rules allow schools to play 40 games in the season.  Smaller schools like Treynor generally do not have enough pitchers to play that many games.  Treynor had 29 scheduled this summer, but 6-7 were rained out.  He wants to schedule 35 next year.

League rules allow pitching and catching to start in January for grades 8-12.  A pitcher can only pitch 16 innings in a week (Sunday through Saturday).  They are only allowed to pitch 9 inning per day, but that is usually excessive for a High School player.

This fall there will be a team for 7^th and 8^th graders.  The baseball team is expecting 30-35 players next year, so they will probably have a freshman team.  Freshman games will be during the day, because of field availability.  Next summer could be a great year for Treynor baseball.  Nigel Horton is the assistant coach, but another coach will be needed.