By Chris Agar (Whetstone Staff Writer)

Wesley baseball team The Whetstone / Cochise Lucas

Wesley baseball team The Whetstone / Cochise Lucas

The Wesley Wolverine baseball team hopes to replicate the success they had in 2009, when they with a 26-17-1 record and finished as the Eastern College Athletic Conference runner-up.  Despite the deep postseason run, head coach Tripp Keister described the season as “successful, yet disappointing.”

Wesley saw a handful of players named to the All Capital Athletic Conference Team last year. Outfielder Stu Madden was named to the first team, while catcher Dan Bunnion and pitchers Ryan Buckland and Colin Warner were second teamers. These players are among the five position players and four pitchers returning from last year’s squad.

“I’m excited to have those guys back,” said Keister.

The players share the coach’s enthusiasm about the upcoming season.

“I think we’re going to be strong,” said senior Grant Morlock. “We have a couple of young arms that should pan out and we’re trying to build off a strong season last year. We think big things are coming here in the near future.”

Junior infielder Geoff Kimmel agrees.

“We expect nothing less than to win the conference,” he said. “We got good talent on this team like anyone else out there as far as I’m concerned.”

Kimmel and Morlock will be instrumental in Wesley’s bid to win the CAC Conference. Last year Kimmel hit .401 with four homeruns and 47 runs batted in, which was good for the team lead. Morlock hit for a .375 average with six homers and 34 runs batted in.

His homerun total was the most on the 2009 team. Pitching wise, the Wolverines will rely on DJ Keckler to have a repeat of his rookie of the year campaign.

In ’09, Keckler recorded a record of 6-2 in 12 starts with a 3.46 earned run average and 48 strikeouts. One of those wins was a complete game shutout against top-ranked Salisbury, Wesley’s biggest athletic rival. Early on, the weather conditions limited team activities.

The snow and rain caused five game cancellations.

The team had to practice indoors every day. On Feb. 23, they tried something new by having their pitchers throw to hitters indoors so they can get the experience of facing a batter.

“The weather’s set us back with [young players’] growth,” said Keister. “We’ve been stuck in this gym for a while, so we’ll see how we do when we get outside.”

The team played on Mar. 25 and saw their five game winning streak come to an end with a 5-3 loss to Penn-St. Brandywine.

The Wolverines’ offense sputtered, leaving 14 runners on base.

Their next home game is Mar. 30 against Eastern. The first pitch is at 3:30 p.m.