
The members of the high school baseball in attendance for the annual banquet. (Photo/Jeremy Smith)
The Gillespie High School baseball team celebrated their season with their annual banquet on Tuesday evening with less than half of the team in attendance. Despite the low turnout, the coaches honored eight players in attendance with a varsity letter.
This year’s team finished the season 13-15 and 3-6 in the conference, according to head coach Jeremy Smith who also said the team celebrated the end of the season with a meal, dessert and awards.
The Miners fought through adversity throughout the season
“Although their record didn’t show it,” Smith defended in his press release, “The Miners fought through adversity throughout the season.” He continued by clarifying that 10 games were lost by three runs or less.
Smith said the team battled throughout the season and played tough against really good teams like Southwestern, who Gillespie lost to 2-3, and Pleasant Plains, who beat the Miners 1-0.
“I feel like we lose some seniors who were the core for the last couple of years, but we have returning letterman and some underclassmen that will provide the talent and depth for a successful future,” Smith added.
Tate Wargo led the team in the batter’s box with best average (.416) with 89 at-bats, the most doubles (11) and shared the honor of the lowest number of strikeouts (7) with Eli Fox who posted a .349 season average and smacked 9 doubles and 13 single baggers. Blake Middleton carried the team with the most RBI’s (30) and homeruns (2) while Bryce McKinney posted the most triples (2).
Underclassman Rylee Bernot threw the most innings for Gillespie this season with 59.2 innings pitched in 14 appearances and had the lowest earned run average (1.877) surrendering only 16 earned runs over the course of the season. Bernot had eight starts, struck out 44 batters and walked only 10 batters.
Smith thanked the CUSD 7 administration, specifically Supt. Joe Tieman, principal Lori Emmons and athletic director Mike Bertaganolli; his assistant coach, Tim Wargo; volunteer assistants, Adam Tallman and Dan Smith; and the numerous announcers, concession stand workers and parents for working behind the scenes to ensure everything ran smoothly.
AWARDS
- Varsity letters: Rylee Bernot, Gavin Brown, Ryan Griffith, Tate Wargo, Trevor Fredericks, Nick Wyatt, Nick Jarman, Dylan Roberts, Daniel Dobrino, Josh Balzraine, Owen Carter, Blake Middleton, Eli Fox and Bryce McKinney.
- Team awards: Eli Fox (defensive award), Bryce McKinney (Miner award) and Tate Wargo (offensive award and 2016 team MVP).
- Contributions to the junior varsity team: Joey Carter, Foli Seferi, Ryan Reid, Adam Boeck, Trent Segarra, Trae Hall, Blake Hammann, Drake Ruckman, Nick Spencer, Blaine Fritz, Gavin Call, Richard Roach, and Brian Sellers. (Smith pointed out that Sellers was a senior who hadn’t played since junior high and commended Sellers’ attitude while playing JV and being a senior)
– – – – – – – – – – – – –
There are plenty of ways to keep up on BenGil news:
Sign up for our weekly email newsletter
Follow us on Twitter for the fastest breaking news updates and score updates
Like us on Facebook for a slightly different take
Share this story
Comments
comments