Broncos to play favorite role in Big Seven

What can Lee’s Summit North do for an encore in the Suburban Big Seven in baseball?

It remains to be the seen if a repeat of last season’s 26-6 record and a Class 4 state runner-up finish will occur.

As of now, though, the Broncos are the solid favorite in a poll of the league’s coaches to unseat Liberty as the conference champion.

Liberty finished second in the poll followed by Blue Springs South, Lee’s Summit, Blue Springs, Raymore-Peculiar and St. Joseph Central. A coach couldn’t vote for his own team.

“We have about half of our team back that went to state,” North coach Jeff Diekmann said. “We need to find more pitching and someone to work behind the plate.

All-state shortstop Caleb Cole, who had a .441 average, 20 extra-base hits and 43 runs batting leadoff last season, joins third baseman/pitcher Brad Philips and outfielder Dustin Ulrich in leading a group of eight returning senior lettermen.

LIBERTY: Liberty comes off a banner 23-6 season.

“We lost 12 seniors and 90 percent of the pitching staff,” Blue Jays coach Kirk Bragg said. “The focus this year will be on pitching and finding a couple of arms to compete in the conference and be ready for districts. There will be an opportunity for many newcomers to emerge in the field and at the plate.”

Five returning senior lettermen will lead the Blue Jays, who went 10-2 in the conference last season to edge Lee’s Summit North (9-3) for the title (Liberty later fell to North in the state quarterfinals).

BLUE SPRINGS SOUTH: The Jaguars come off a 14-11 season and District 14 championship.

Lettermen Drew Casper, Jeff Fowler, Nick Gast, Justin Ginter, D’Andre Heggle, Josh Hightower, Gehrig Hudson, Chanze Mason, E.J. Merlo, Logan Moon and Blake Pummill look to help South enjoy continued success.

“We return a core group of guys who know what it takes to be successful at the end of the year,” Jaguars coach Ben Baier said. “I believe we will be a pretty solid defensive team, and that should keep us in a lot of games. We also return a great deal of our lineup from last year, which should benefit us a bunch this spring.

“We will need to find guys in our rotation that can replace the pitching we lost last year, but I feel we have some pitchers who have the potential to get it done for us on the mound.”

LEE’S SUMMIT: Brad Law, Corbin Berkstresser, Eric Yotter and McKinley Duke are the only returnees from a 15-9 team.

“We have talent but we are very young,” Tigers coach Jim Mellody said. “We should improve as the season goes along.”

BLUE SPRINGS: Returning lettermen Evan Berndt, Tyler Reed, Ty Butler, Dan McGonigle, Jordan Brown, and Zach Butler hope to help the Wildcats improve on a 13-11 season.

“We have to find pitching,” Wildcats coach Marc Hines said. “We have only two guys, the Butler brothers, who pitched over one inning on the varsity level last year. We have a group that works hard and loves playing baseball and can’t wait to get started.”

RAYMORE-PECULIAR: The Panthers hope to bounce back from a 12-15 season with the help of eight returning letter winners.

“We should be strong defensively and score some runs,” Panthers coach Gary Renshaw said. “We will have good team speed. A weak spot will be pitching.”

ST. JOSEPH CENTRAL: St. Joseph Central could be the conference’s most improved team.

“Last year was my first year at Central with a young team,” Indians coach Justin McCarthy said. “This year we are another year older and return all of our players except three.

“I see us improving drastically and winning several games behind a strong senior class of pitchers.”

Seven lettermen return from a 6-14 team.