White Knoll Baseball, Softball Teams Focused On Making Playoffs Once Again
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Lexington — As Seth Cooper begins his third season as the head baseball coach at White Knoll, he says the Timber Wolves are still in a rebuilding mode, but he sees no reason why his team can’t make the playoffs and improve on the five wins they had a year ago.
“We return four senior starters, and we have a little more depth this season, but we are still rebuilding the program,” he said. “Making the playoffs is certainly one of our top goals.”
The team has started out 1-3 thus far but they were encouraged by a 9-1 win over South Aiken on March, 3rd to record their first win of the young season. In the win over SA senior ace pitcher Bailey Buol scattered five hits and recorded 3 strike-outs in the win.
“Bailey has signed to play baseball at Morris College and he is our number one pitcher and we are expected big things from him this season,” said Coach Cooper. “Last season he pitched 28 innings and had 16 strike-outs.”
The top hitters against South Aiken were senior third baseman/pitcher Hunter Hoffman who went 2-for-2 with 2 RBI’s. Hoffman has signed to play baseball at Limestone College and he batted .308 as a junior. Freshman right fielder Denzel Posey was hot at the plate also going 3-for-four and junior first baseman Jason Evans went 2-for-2 with wo RBI’s.
Posey and sophomore center fielder Jeremy Powell will be 2-3 in the White Knoll pitching rotation. Powell batted .290 last season and had a .424 on-base-percentage.
Chance Culley starts at shortstop and he also pitches. “Chance is our leader of the infield,” said Coach Cooper. “He’s bats in the 5-6 hole right now and he will play in every game. He batted .,270 last year with 9 RBI’s.”
Senior Emanuel Sanquintin starts in left field and moves to the infield depending on pitching assignments. Senior starting second baseman Robbie Murphy has signed to play at USC Union. He bats in the two hole and last season he batted .270.
Wyatt Bowen is a junior starting in right field for the first time. Thus far, in the 2024 season Brett Cassan and freshman Alan Moore are sharing catching duties. Cassan played first a season ago.
Senior Hayden Weider is a first- year senior and he is a reserve outfielder who will also run bases. Braydon Hoffman (L-L) is up from the junior varsity and he will mainly be a relief pitcher. First year junior Allan Morales Suarez (L-L) will also work as a relief pitcher.
White Knoll will start the regular season on March, 8 hosting Swansea before playing at RNE on Saturday. Coach Cooper is assisted by Chandler Moore, Steven Estep, and Jaylin Jennings.
April Farr Begins 11th Season As White Knoll Softball Coach
With the “Varsity Blues” Pre-season tournament pretty much rained out, the White Knoll softball team has only played one official game this season, a loss to Saluda.
“We are extremely young in the pitching area this season working with an 8th grader and two freshmen,” said head coach April Farr. “The 8th grader is EG Birchmore and the two freshmen are Lexi Burkard and Adelynn Lewis. They all have potential but just need varsity experience.”
One huge surprise for the team early on has been the emergence of 7th grader Melinda Veller who is has a solid glove in left field and she is batting .333. “We are pleased and shocked to see a 7th grader playing so well in the field and batting really well behind the plate,” said Coach Farr.
The team leader is sophomore catcher Mackenzi Bradley who batted .338 with 15 RBI’s last season. “Mackenzi is a strong all-region candidate for us this season,” said Coach Farr.
The only all-region returner to the team that competed for a District championship last year is junior shortstop Nikki Gallardo who batted .350 with seven home runs, seven doubles, and 26 RBI’s. She recently attended a softball prospect camp at Syracuse University.
White Knoll will begin the season with two games against Westwood starting on March, 6.
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