Division III Team Of The Week: Week 4 - Wayne Trace

April 25, 2023
Bruce Hefflinger
PBR Ohio Senior Writer

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Division III Team Of The Week: Week 4 - Wayne Trace

HAVILAND - Expectations are being met by the Raiders of Wayne Trace.

The Prep Baseball Report Division III Team of the Week picked up two Green Meadows Conference victories to push their record to 10-1 on the season and 5-0 in league play, with the winning streak now at eight.

“Our expectations as a team were to compete for another conference championship and put ourselves into a position to have a high tournament seeding and win our district,” explained WT head coach Ryne Jerome. “So far we are on pace with those goals and expectations, but we also believe our best ball is still ahead of us.

“We've had outstanding leadership so far from our older/experienced players and some key contributions from some younger guys, especially in the batting order. We're going to need that to continue in order to be successful.”

Cooper Wenzlick has been outstanding to date, with the uncommitted highly-ranked 6-1 195-pound junior 4-0 with a 0.66 ERA and 0.84 WHIP. Wenzlick, who has pitched 21.1 innings allowing six hits and 12 walks while striking out 34, went 4.1 innings permitting two hits with seven Ks in a 7-4 win over Fairview on Thursday to cap off a 2-0 week for the Raiders. A quarterback in football, Wenzlick also blasted a three-run homer in the game to push his team-high RBI total to 18, establishing the all-time school career mark at 74 and counting. For the season Wenzlick, who plays third base when not pitching, is batting .371.

Breven Anderson went the distance two days earlier to open the week for Wayne Trace, throwing a three-hitter in an 8-1 victory over Ayersville. The junior, who plays second base when not on the mound, has yet to walk a batter in 20 innings this season. Anderson is now 2-1 with a 0.70 ERA and 0.55 WHIP, striking out 30 including a dozen in the win on Tuesday. Anderson was also 4-4 at the plate to push his batting mark to .389 with nine runs scored and nine RBIs.

Tyler Davis, an Indiana Tech commit who plays center field, leads the Raiders in hitting at .412 while scoring eight runs and driving in eight. The WT senior, who had a sacrifice fly to cap off the win over Fairview while also pitching 1.2 innings of relief, is 1-0 with 14 strikeouts in 8.2 innings on the year, with a 2.42 ERA.

Senior first baseman Kyle Slade, who scored three runs and hit two doubles against Fairview, is batting .313 on the year with 10 runs scored while junior catcher Tucker Antoine, who hit a pair of singles against Ayersville, has also plated 10 runs with four doubles and a .289 average.

Junior shortstop Cale Winans also hit two singles versus Ayersville and is now batting .382 with 14 runs while also contributing a pair of saves on the mound. Kyle Forrer recorded his first save of the season against Fairview while senior Evan Crosby came up big in the win on Tuesday with a two-run homer and run-scoring double.

“We've had some new guys like Evan Crosby and sophomore Tyler Head really step up and produce for us at the plate,” Jerome noted. “Tyler Davis, who's a four-year guy for us, has also really stepped up his game at the plate and has really made our lineup more dangerous 1-9 than it was a year ago.”

A big week is on tap for the third-rated D-IV team in Ohio, with five games slated, including the chance to clinch an outright GMC title on Tuesday at 4-1 Edgerton.

“We're going to need the continued production at the plate,” Jerome said about the keys to success the rest of the season. “Obviously we need to stay healthy, and so far we've been lucky in that area but that needs to continue.

“We also need to continue to improve in all aspects of our game and not be satisfied with where we currently are because we truly have yet to play our best ball. The key to that will be continued leadership by our veteran players, focusing on the task at hand day to day and not letting complacency set in.”