Freshmen Hoping to Lead Affton Baseball Resurgence

For the first time in nearly three years, is fielding a freshmen baseball team.

Unlike some school districts across the country that are cutting back on freshmen and junior varsity teams due to budget issues, in past years, the Cougars simply didn’t have enough freshmen interested in playing baseball to field a freshmen team.

That has changed for the 2011 season. The Cougars not only have a full roster at the freshmen level, they have also moved some of those freshmen players up to the varsity team.

“It’s been about three years since we’ve had the numbers come out to play, so that’s been a plus this season,” Affton head coach Adonis Smith said. “We’ve actually got a couple of freshmen here on the varsity team with Zach Fiebig, Joey Thompson and Anthony Herron."

“It’s always good when you’ve got a bunch of guys at the lower levels to come out and play. The fact that they’ve played the game before always helps," he said.

The Cougars (0-8, 0-2 Suburban East) have been outscored 78-31 this season. Yet last Thursday, Affton showed some signs of progress as they took a 5-3 lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning against University City. Unfortunately, the Cougars gave up two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning and another run in the bottom of the eighth inning for a 6-5 loss.

“We’re taking it on the chin right now,” Smith said. “For the most part, we seem to kind of have a big inning go against us in every game, other than the University City game where we bounced back, and I was really proud of them...That’s the kind of club that I know that they can be, and that’s the kind of club that I’m going to push them to be, and I won’t take anything less than that.”

With six seniors on this year’s roster, the Cougars had hoped to have enough experience to improve on last season’s record of 11-12.

“They’re definitely a good group of seniors,” Smith said. “We just haven’t had the chips fall our way. They come out and play hard, and I still stay on them because I want to show the younger guys how we want things done at Affton.”

Senior Ryan Smith took over at second base after playing at first base the previous three seasons. He’s currently leading the Cougars with a .450 batting average with two doubles, one triple and two runs batted in.

“Ryan’s a great ballplayer that I’ve had since he was a freshman,” Smith said. “Good kid to swing the stick and has always come through in the clutch. He’s playing second base this year because we had some guys that we needed to move around the field this season.”

Nick Doeschot is pitching and playing infield. Last season Doeschot was 3-1 overall with a 2.88 earned run average. This season he has struggled at times, and is 0-2 and a 3.73 ERA. But he does keep batters off-balance with a cool .211 opponent batting average.

At the plate, Doeschot is batting .296 with three doubles and one run batted in.

“Nick’s had some tough breaks on the mound this year, but he’s known to keep the ball down and definitely get some outs,” Smith said. “He also swings the bat pretty decent when he keeps his head in the game, and he’s a terror on the base paths as well.”

Senior D.J. Mueller was a first team All-Suburban East Conference selection last season after hitting .452 with five doubles and 12 RBI. Currently, the Cougars' starting shortstop is batting .417 with five RBI.

“I’m looking for a lot of good things out of D.J. this year,” Smith said. “He’s still swinging the bat pretty well.”

Justin Thompson returns to the Cougars' starting rotation after posting a record of 3-2 last season with a 5.03 ERA and 34 strikeouts. Smith is looking forward to Thompson being Affton’s ace as this season progresses.

“When Justin gets back, we’re kind of looking for him to be our No. 1 guy on the mound,” Smith said. “I’m looking for him to just take charge and get outs when we need outs.”

Senior Matt Michalski is a utility player that has proven to be a solid leader on the bench and on the field for the Cougars.

“Matt doesn’t get to play that much, but he’s definitely a leader on the bench,” Smith said. “Good things always seem to happen for us whenever he does come on the field because he does a lot of pinch running for us."

Affton is at Windsor Tuesday for a 4 p.m. nonconference meeting with the Owls, followed by a home game against Bayless on Wednesday at 4 p.m.