HIGH-SCHOOL

Prep Baseball: Core returns for Little Cyclones

Staff Writer
Ames Tribune

The Ames baseball team endured a season a year ago that probably would best be forgotten.

A 7-30 record featuring a 21-game losing streak isn’t the type of thing most would like to remember.

But the Little Cyclones aren’t shying away from their past as they prepare to begin the future.

“I think it was a huge motivation factor,” said Ames coach Eric Bappe.

The Little Cyclones bring back plenty of players who experienced the tasking season and are ready to move forward from it, led by the sophomore quartet of Toran Shahidi, Sam Straub, Alex Brammer and Joe Bappe.

“They’ve played a lot the last two years,” Coach Bappe said. “All of them started as freshmen, and they’ve taken their lumps the last two years, but it hasn’t been for lack of effort or performance.”

Bappe hit .368 and slugged .526 a year ago while Brammer had a batting average of .327. Shahidi posted a .467 on-base percentage and Straub registered a .435 OBP.

“Playing varsity baseball as a sophomore is a big task,” said senior Dom Sorrentino, who returns after hitting.360/.400/.467, “and juniors they step up to the plate more.”

The Little Cyclones will be counting on everyone taking a step forward as they begin play Saturday with a doubleheader at home against Sioux City East.

“All of our players this past winter put in the time and the effort to get better, so our results will be much higher,” Shahidi said.

After suffering through that 21-game skid, Ames responded by going 4-4 over its final eight contests last year.

“It would have been really easy for teams that have that sort of losing streak to just kind of quit,” Coach Bappe said. “They didn’t. We played some of our best baseball at the end of the year. I have no regrets about how we ended up the season last year. The kids don’t either and it really energized them this spring and in the offseason to work really hard.”

With seven players back who started at least 20 games last season, Ames can count on an experience advantage most nights they take the diamond.

“It’s a junior and senior dominated team,” Coach Bappe said, “and that’s what you need to win games in this league because everybody’s a tough out every night.”

Coalescing that experience and talent will be paramount.

“Last year, we had talent,” Sorrentino said, “but we only had a couple of seniors who really carried the load and this year we’ve got four or five guys that every night you’ve got to watch out for. Even the non-seniors, the returning players.

“We’re going to have a better pitching staff, and I think that’s a recipe for success.”

Whether Straub is a part of the pitching staff remains to be seen.

As Straub, Ames’ starting quarterback, works toward securing a football scholarship this summer, the Little Cyclones plan on limiting his throwing, as he’s yet to even toss from the outfield.

Straub contemplated not playing baseball, but ultimately decided to return.

“He just knew it would kill him not to be out here,” Coach Bappe said.

Ames will have to navigate “one of the best schedules we’ve ever had,” Bappe said.

The Little Cyclones will face state runner-up Fort Dodge four times, state champion Ankeny twice and state participants Dowling Catholic and West Des Moines Valley twice apiece.

“A lot of the guys are coming back, and it’s a lot of our core guys from last year so I think we’re definitely looking up,” Sorrentino said. “We’ve got a team that can be competitive night in and night out.”

One thing Ames is certainly not lacking is the bravado needed to move beyond the 2012 season.

“You’ve got to have confidence to win,” Shahidi said. “Always believe you’re the best.

“If you don’t believe you’re the best, get off the field.”

Count on the Little Cyclones being ready and accounted for at Ray Smalling Field come 1 p.m. Saturday.