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Sports

Westminster Baseball Enjoying Sizzling Start

The Wildcats have opened the 2011 season with an 8-2 mark heading into Thursday night.

The baseball team had to start over in the 2010 season after losing three senior pitchers.

The Wildcats were a young team, but improved as the season went on and played their best baseball at the end of the season, advancing to the Class 3 quarterfinals.

Westminster Christian would like to get at least another step closer in state title contention in 2011 as it fields an experienced and talented squad. The Wildcats may be on their way to a special season after an 8-2 start entering play Thursday night.

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The Wildcats opened the 2011 season with a trip to Vero Beach and a tour of the four Parkway schools.

They won all five games in Florida, scoring in double figures in four of those games.

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"The trip to Florida was great," Westminster coach Rich Van Gilst said. "We stayed at the old Dodgertown in Vero Beach and got to play on some great fields. We hit the ball decently down there but we did not face the same caliber of pitchers that we have in our four games on our 'Parkway Tour'.

Westminster finished 2-1-1 against the Parkway schools, losing a tough 6-5 game to Parkway South as it allowed five runs in the seventh inning, and tying P, 4-4, in 12 innings. The Wildcats defeated 13-2 and Parkway West, 6-4.

"We blew the lead against Parkway South and made some critical base-running errors against Parkway Central which helped put the game in extra innings," Van Gilst said. "We made some errors which hurt us, but we also made some great plays which kept us in games."

Van Gilst was especially pleased with the Wildcats' pitching in the four games as they allowed just 16 runs.

"We had four games in four days and played 33 innings with a short-handed staff and I thought we pitched well," Van Gilst said.

Senior Jake Kinsinger, who was 4-3 with a 2.42 ERA in 2010, is out for at least four weeks. Senior Alec Mitchell, who was 3-3 with a 1.50 ERA last season, is also rehabbing from an injury and has pitched only a couple of innings. Another pitcher from last year, Greg Gannon, transferred to Ladue.

Senior Collin Henry, junior Glen Calvin and sophomore Ben Lovell have done the bulk of the pitching so far. Henry threw the most innings of any Wildcats pitcher last year at 54 2/3 innings. He was 4-4 with a 2.05 ERA. Henry had an excellent strikeout-to-walk ratio with 45 Ks and just eight walks. Calvin led the team in wins, as he had five with no defeats and a good 2.43 ERA.

The offensive numbers early in the season have been lofty with a handful of players coming back from Florida with averages of over .550. But those numbers will level off with the better pitching the Wildcats will face.

There is still a lot of potential with proven hitters such as Tate Matheny, Ryan Allee, Connor Einertson and Andrew Beck.

Matheny, a junior center fielder, led the team in most offensive categories last year as he hit .551 with five homers and 45 RBI.

"Tate is a player who is getting a lot of attention from Division I coaches and big league scouts," Van Gilst said. "He has a lot of potential."

Allee, a senior, returns behind the plate after hitting .480 with a homer and 29 RBI last season.

Einertson, who has moved to left field from second base, and first baseman Beck, also are returning starters who hit in excess of .300 last season.

Junior Luke Turner also returns to third base while Henry will play in the outfield when not pitching.

The middle infield is new with junior Conner Larson, a transfer from John Burroughs, at second base and freshman Shane Benes at shortstop.

"We have the ability to score runs," Van Gilst said. "We have played pretty well so far but we need to play better. The guys have worked hard but we need to cut down on some mental mistakes. I just hope we can continue to get better and be playing our best at the end of the season. We would love to get back to the final four."

Westminster were scheduled to host Lutheran North Thursday at 4:30 p.m., followed by a game at Friday at 4:15 p.m. 

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