The Littlefield Wildcats are off to an 11-6 start in the 2021 campaign under veteran Head Coach Mitch McNeese.
The Wildcats are 12-6 overall, 3-0 in district play as of Tuesday afternoon.
Coach McNeese has Nathan McKinnon helping him this year, as well as Tyler Rekeita, who is in his third year with the program and Bryson Calaway, who is in his second year with the Wildcats.
“Coach McKinnon has been with me for about nine years now; he is not asigned to the baseball program, but he comes out to practice from time to time, he comes out to the games and does pitch counts for us. Coach Rekeita is into his third year with us. He does a great job and was a pitcher at LCU. Coach Calaway was an All-State player for me coming back from Wayland Baptist University as a pitcher. The good thing about this group is myself, Rekeita and Calaway were all collegiate pitchers. They bring a lot to the table. I turned our infield work over to them and they take care of everything. They also have a lot of knowledge on hitting.”
He added, “Those guys are really elevating the level of play of our kids, just based on the knowledge and experience they have. They are able to reach these kids at the level they need to reach them. I would put my baseball staff
The Wildcats bring back 11 seniors on the 2021 roster. “Most of these guys did have to start off as freshman or sophomores on the varsity, just based on numbers we had during those years,” the coach said. “It forced those guys to play at a higher level at a young age, which right now you can see having that experience is paying off now.”
“Chris Brown is batting .426 and has an on base percentage of .563. He is our four-hole hitter and is doing some great things at the plate. He has a lot of power and finally connected with one the other day at Muleshoe. He is a solid player and a solid pitcher; he is dominant on the mound throwing right around 90 mph. When he is on, he can ware you out, and you saw it against #8 Denver City,” the coach explained.
“Alex Carrillo has been playing some first base for us; he rotates in with Blake Green depending on who is pitching. He also pitches and can play other positions as well, but we mostly use him at first and pitcher. PJ Cruz is our junkballer; he goes up there and changes it up with lots of curveballs and change-ups. His fastball is sneaky when he is throwing all of that other stuff and he also plays shortstop for us.”
He added, “Blake Green plays first base, pitches and plays center field and is leading the team with a .522 batting average and an on base percentage of .652. He is also leading the team in homeruns with five and has 32 hits in 55 at bats. He is on fire and is chewing up innings on the mound. Ethan Hackler mans third base for us. He is batting .400 with an on base percentage of .484. He also has 22 hits on the year.”
“Turner Heffington has played some second base for us and is pretty much our anchor out in left field. He went into a slump early, but has been putting it in play and is doing a great job,” Coach McNeese said. “Caden Longoria is batting .364 and has an on base percentage of.500. He plays right field for us and does a good job. Gus McNabb plays second base and has been catching for us lately and is getting better at that. He is batting .361 and is solid at the plate; he is a player that I have to have on the field. Cash Price is in his second year on varsity and plays second base and outfield for us.”
He added, “Jeremiah Salazar played baseball his sophomore year, didn’t play last year and came back this year. He is a solid infielder and is batting .353 and is a switch hitter. We also have Joseph Salinas, who has been with us for four years. He runs for the catcher or the pitcher, whoever gets on first and that man is a solid base runner. I’m glad he comes out, because he gives us a wrinkle that we otherwise wouldn’t have.”
This year’s squad also features seven juniors.
“Davin Saldana came back from a year away and rotates behind the plate with McNabb,” the coach said. “He is batting .222, but he is quick and has a quick release and he has thrown out a lot of runners. He is a threat behind the plate. Tavion Ivery plays outfield for us and pinch hits when we need him to. Nick Caballero plays a lot with the JV, but he comes up and is a solid pitcher and plays first base. I use him as one of those middle relief guys.”
He added, “Jaron Cabello is now my starting right fielder. He doesn’t hit, he gets DH’ed for, but he is a solid outfielder and have him there for his defensive capabilities in the outfield. Ethan Garcia is a solid left-hander. He plays center field and is a solid pitcher. He throws from the left side and throws in the low 80’s; he is also batting .303.”
“Jordan Trevino is in his third year on varsity and is batting .355 out of the lead-off spot. He bats left handed and throws right handed. He is very patient and has an on base average of .500. He does everything you want out of a lead-off hitter; he gets on base a lot and gives those guys behind him a chance to drive him in. Jonavan Weaver is our DH, batting a .233 right now and is coming on strong.”
The Wildcats also have one freshman on the roster in Brendon Bowman.
“Bowman is also with us on the varsity and will catch when I need him to and he can pitch,” Coach McNeese said.
“We’ve been building this up for a lot of years and it seems like all this experience that we have, the pitching the hitting; we’re no longer underclassmen, we are a team of upperclassmen. They work well together as a team.
Coach McNeese talked about how he has seen his guys bounce back from the 2020 season that was taken from everyone due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, saying, “I hated it last year, because I thought we were really good last year. I was sad that it ended because I thought we were on the right path because we beat Levelland, who was in the top 10 in 4A, but that was the last game we got to play last year. For these guys like these seniors and juniors who have worked so hard and been with the program so long, there is a desire to win those gold gloves.”
He added, “We sit a gold glove out there at practice every so often, just to remind them that that is our goal. For us to have not reached it in four years, these guys want it; it’s something they haven’t had, there is a desire and a taste for it. These seniors that were not in basketball have been out on the baseball field since November and have been working extremely hard. It is so fun to see these guys grow each and every day.”
Coach McNeese talked about the pitching rotation he is going with through district, saying, “With the pitch count rules you have to be real funny. After 60 pitches you can’t pitch for two days, so as you go on and get the feel of the game and you know you can win it, you’re probably going to stick with your man and let your number two start the next game.”
He added, “Right now, Chris is pitching really well, you have Ethan who is a lefty, Blake is pitching real well, Cruz is pitching good, the sky is the limit. I have a lot of middle relief and I have a lot of guys who can finish games. Right now I’m looking at Chris and Ethan to be our one and two, with all of these other guys being the supporting cast. We are really heavy on the pitching staff and I’m comfortable with any of these guys going up on the mound and getting the job done.”
The coach talked about their strengths, saying, “Our pitching staff has done a great job and our offense. Some of that has been weak in the past; that is actually our strength now. Offensively, we are being patient, we’re getting base runners and we’re scoring a lot of runs. And we’re scoring those runs on good pitching.”
He added, “If I had to choose a weakness, we’ve been committing too many errors on defense and are giving up too many unearned runs. But, that is something we can fix and that will get better as we go. The fielding can use some work, which we’ve been putting a lot of time into. Hitting, though, has been awesome, and it’s something that we haven’t had in a while, to have offensive power. We’ve hit 12 homeruns as a team this year, our on base percentage as a team is. 447 and our batting average as a team is .335. When you add that up it equals wins.”
The Wildcats are off to a solid start with five games remaining in the regular season. Coach McNeese talked about the schedule, saying, “We started the season against Abernathy, who is a solid squad and we played them without our entire team, because we still had most of our guys in basketball. Then we went to 4A Pampa and lost both of those games; if we would of cleaned up the defense we would of won. But, we started the season 0-3.”
He added, “We beat Tulia, then beat River Road, Perryton, Borger in the Line Drive Classic. We played Hawley, which is a solid 2A team and took two games. We played a solid Slaton team and then played Trinity Christian, who is ranked #1 in TAPPS. It’s not a weak schedule; we’ve played a quality schedule and I think it has pushed us to a different level of play. We went straight into #8 Denver City and knocked them off, we played Kermit who is in that South District, we played Muleshoe, Lamesa played Denver City, 7-4, and Brownfield is dangerous. I think it’s one of those situations where any of these teams can knock off the other.”
The Wildcats hosted Brownfield on Tuesday. Results were not available at press time. The rest of their schedule is as follows:
Saturday April 17 th at Denver City; Tuesday April 20 th home against Trinity Christian; Saturday April 24 th home against Muleshoe; Tuesday April 27 th at Lamesa and they will close out the regular season on May 1 st on the road against Brownfield.