'Hounds came into season with high expectations

A 30-win season with a winning record would be enough for most programs to point to as a positive.

And while that was true of last year's Fort Scott Community College baseball team, the coaching staff is hoping to build on that and, more importantly, turn things around in the Jayhawk Conference-Eastern Division.

Head Coach John Hill's teams have been competitive both on the field and off during his tenure.

In his first four years at Fort Scott, the team has averaged a grade point average of 3.33. Twelve players have earned Academic All-American honors and 10 have earned Distinguished Academic All-American honors.

The team has averaged 32 wins a year and landed 23 All-Conference players and five All-Region players. Every sophomore in Hill's tenure has been offered a baseball scholarship following their time at FSCC and every player has continued their college academic career after leaving FSCC.

The 2011-12 team finished with a record of 30-26. Academically, the team finished with the fourth-highest team GPA in the nation and had two players earn Exemplary Academic Honors (formerly known as Academic All-American with a GPA of 3.60+).

This marked the fourth straight year the baseball program finished in the top six nationally in Team GPA and the third straight year the team finished in the top four out of 395 NJCAA baseball programs, noted the web site.

Assessing his team's overall composition, Hill said there have been a number of positives thus far.

"I like the mental toughness, attitude, and internal leadership of our team," Hill said. "Those will be our strengths. We have already lost our top three bullpen pitchers and our team attitude has been to stick together and overcome this situation. That's a tough blow to swallow, as a bullpen is essential to a team's success.

"But that's why we have other players who now need to step up and get the job done.

"Our sophomores have done a great job to this point of taking ownership of the program and guiding the freshmen down the correct path. The daily attitude of our players is a mature approach where they come to work hard on daily basis. Our kids have proven to be mentally tough to this point."

The Greyhounds have a number of new faces on the team, with 18 freshmen, including four redshirts, and a handful of transfers.

Hill said he expects freshmen Josh Griffith, Aaron Mason, John Lynch and Ethan Peacock "will all make an impact on the mound" and Ka'ai Tom, Lance Barkley, Griffith, Alex Copeland, Zach Taylor, and Parker O'Dell "will make an impact as position players."

Sophomore Jeff Rousseau transferred from Eastern Michigan University. Sophomore Nick Kevlin transferred from Dominican College.

"Both will be key late game bullpen guys for us this year," Hill says.

Redshirt freshman Lance Barkley transferred from Central Missouri.

And there are more players coming for next year, as Hill and his staff have 13 who made it official on the first day of the national signing period.

Regulars this season thus far have been, at third Reyn Sugai (.349, 51 hits, 11 doubles, 28 RBI last year) and Joe Hermsen (.218); at shortstop Alex Drew (.347, .407 on base) and Zach Taylor; at second Sugai and Taylor; and at first Josh Griffith and Hermsen.

Seeing time at catcher have been Alex Copeland and Ben Story.

The outfield spots feature John Morey (.364, .440 on base), and Parker O'Dell in left, Barkley and Morey in center, and Ka'ai Tom and O'Dell in right.

Handling the starting pitching have been Josh Griffith, Aaron Mason, Ryan Ahrens, and Ethan Peacock, with Nick Kevlin, John Lynch, and Jeff Rousseau on in relief.

Other members of the team include freshmen Sam Gilbert, Landon Holifield, Doug Jenkins, Payton Logan, Garrett McKenzie, Cash Pechin, Matt Shannon, and Connor Staihr, and sophomore Zack Wunderlich.

"Sophomore Ryan Ahrens has made the biggest jump in improvement amongst the pitchers and sophomore John Morey has made the most improvement among the hitters," noted the coach.

Hill said the teams to beat this year include Cowley County, Neosho County, Johnson County, and Kansas City Kansas.

"They all have financial resources that far surpass any of the other schools as far as facilities and budgets," said Hill

"They each have coaches who have been at their schools for over 26 years and have established traditions of winning over that time. In addition to their head coach stability, each of those schools also has assistant coach stability except Neosho. The other three schools have assistants who have been able to stay at those schools for long lengths of time.

"Cowley's head assistant has been there 20 plus years. KCK's head assistant is approaching 20 plus years and their second assistant is close to 10 years. Johnson County's head assistant is close to 10 years.

"All that stability goes a long way to stable success within those programs -- especially when you add in the other aspects such as facilities and budgets."

In assessing his team's chances, Coach Hill noted there were several key areas that would need to fall into place.

"Freshmen Ka'ai Tom and Lance Barkley need to be consistent performers on the offensive end. Freshmen Josh Griffith and Aaron Mason, as well as sophomore Ryan Ahrens, need to be rocks in our starting rotation. And sophomore Alex Drew needs to be our leader and play great defense at shortstop."

Hill said he sees good things happening.

"This has been as enjoyable a year (to this point) as I have had as a head coach. My coaching staff and players are first-class people who make every day fun.

"We are off to a good start, at 9-4, but that's just a good start. However, I am as excited to go to the field as ever and compete with my coaches and players day in and day out."