Consistency. That’s been the mantra of the Crawfordsville baseball program. Coming off a 20-9 season a year ago and a second place finish in the Sagamore Conference, the 2024 edition of the Athenian baseball team will look to carry on the tradition of success.
This season Cville will have to replace a couple of key spots from a year ago, but are well equipped to do just that. AJ Hall, Cale Coursey, and Kaiden Underwood, Dylan Farley, and Isaac Rogers all graduated from last year’s team. Senior and Purdue commit Kale Wemer steps into the No. 1 spot in the rotation for CHS with fellow senior Bryce Dowell and juniors Jude Coursey and Wyatt Motz rounding out the top four.
Offensively Motz led the Athenians a year ago with a .455 average which included 51 total hits and 23 RBI’s. Wemer hit .350 with 28 hits and 26 RBI’s while Dowell batted .304 with 28 hits.
New faces to the Cville order will be expected to help fill in the voids from a year ago on both sides. Freshman Henry Bannon will begin the season as the teams second basemen with junior Sam Minnette being the likely starting catcher. Sophomores Mason McCarty, Matt Miller, and Maddox Ball along with junior Hayden Craig will also players who could see action.
“I think I can confidently say that this group has worked harder on their own time to get better than any I’ve coached,” Crawfordsville coach Brett Motz said about his group. “This a collection of guys that understands they have to put in that hard work year-round. Repetition and commitment is what makes a great player and this is a team that’s done everything they can to get ready to have the best year they possibly can.”
Crawfordsville opened up their 2024 season on Monday at Riverton Parke and will now get ready to travel down to Tennessee for their annual spring break trip. CHS will play four games in three days and will see plenty of players get in live reps. Motz mentioned the upcoming trip and how it’s a great experience for his team.
“Going down there allows us to get a jump start on the season,” Motz said. “We’re going to play a lot of games in a three-day span and guys are going to get their chance to really step up. We have plenty of players competing for spots and have a great group of young guys who are eager to be apart of the varsity roster.”
The only thing missing from Crawfordsville’s trophy case for over a decade has been a sectional title. 2013 is the last time the Athenians hoisted a sectional championship. This 2024 team will look to change that as a new season is officially here for CHS.
