Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
Serving O'Brien & Clay Counties
H-M-S has several holes to fill in 2024 baseball lineup
Members of the 2024 Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn baseball team are front row, from left to right: Riley Mattingly, Anthony Olvera, James Carlin, Hunter Daggett, Owen Tifft, Brody Meendering, Easton Teal, Brayden Moore and Victor Rodriguez. Second row: Jackson Brower, Talan Zearing, Jack Mastbergen, Aidan Espeland, Jonah Moore, Dominic Tripp, Mykle Meyers and Riley Wiersma. Third row: Ricky Smith, Jacob Cates, Blake Meendering, Aiden Bush, Caden Douma and Grant Kunzman. Not pictured: Lawton Schiphoff.
Coach Dawson Schiphoff is in his first year at H-M-S.
The Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn baseball team has several positions to fill for the 2024 season. Graduation and other player losses have created several lineup openings to be filled by a young group of players.
The most experienced returning player is senior Jacob Cates, a four-year starter and two-time all-War Eagle Conference first-team selection. Cates, who has signed with Grandview University as a catcher, was H-M-S's leading hitter in 2023 and compiled a 4-4 record as a starting pitcher.
Other players with varsity experience are junior Aiden Bush, an outfielder who also made one varsity pitching appearance in 2023; junior Jack Mastbergen, an outfielder and pitcher; and junior Blake Meendering, who was the designated hitter in the opening week of the 2024 season.
The other senior on the squad is Aidan Espeland who started the season in right field. H-M-S's first-week infield lineup included junior Dominic Tripp, sophomores Lawton Schiphoff and Ricky Smith, and freshman Grant Kunzman. Eighth grader Hunter Daggett caught Cates during his 19 strikeout pitching performance against GTRA.
Most of the other players in the program are eighth graders or freshmen.
H-M-S compiled a 5-16 record in 2023 and was 1-9 in War Eagle Conference play. Remsen St. Mary's and Gehlen Catholic are the co-defending War Eagle Conference baseball champions.
In addition to player changes in the program, there are also new faces in the H-M-S coaching ranks. Dawson Schiphoff, who was the assistant coach in 2023, is now the head coach. The 2021 H-M-S graduate and four-year baseball player succeeds Jeremy Gloden, who left the program after four years as head coach. Schiphoff's assistant is James Mattingly.
