Division III Team Of The Week: Liberty-Benton
May 22, 2019
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Division III Team Of The Week: Liberty-Benton
The Eagles have won state titles in boys basketball, girls basketball, boys track and field, girls track and field and girls cross country in the past quarter century while also reaching the state finals in football in 2008.
But recent postseasons in baseball have not been favorable to the Eagles, the Ohio Prep Baseball Report Division III Team of the Week. L-B has not made it to the district finals in the sport since 1999 and not won a district championship since 1983.
Third-year head coach Matt Rader is looking to change that this season, starting on Thursday when the 20-4 Eagles take on Ottawa-Glandorf in the district semis.
“They’ve experienced a lot of winning around here,” Rader noted. “But competing (in baseball) with Coldwater-type schools, you can see the confidence those teams have. Hopefully, we’re there and can take that next step.”
The sixth-ranked Eagles could meet up with fourth-rated Coldwater - last year’s D-III state runners-up - should each win in the district semis. But no matter what happens, 2019 has seen a big improvement from Liberty-Benton’s 11-10 season a year ago.
“Our hitting has increased 30-40 points from last year and that’s helping our pitchers,” Rader explained. “Sixty to 70 percent of the time we’re working on hitting. We’ve dedicated a lot more time to getting as many swings in as we can get.”
A trio of sophomores have led the way at the plate for the Eagles, with Race Gorrell hitting .394, Cole Busch .386 and Elliott Veenstra .378. Gorrell, a utility player, has 26 RBIs, 16 runs scored and six doubles. Busch, a shortstop/pitcher, has driven in 28 runs while scoring 21 while Veenstra, a leadoff hitting second baseman, has 20 runs scored, 15 RBIs and 14 walks.
Busch is also 6-0 with a 0.39 ERA on the mound as the number two hurler behind senior Griffin Snider (Video). A Union College (Ky.) commit, the 27th-rated 2019 third baseman in the state is 6-2 with 79 strikeouts and a 2.09 ERA this season. Snider is also batting .358 with 27 RBIs, 17 runs scored and eight doubles.
More pitching comes from Gorrell, who has a 0.70 ERA with 31 Ks in 30 innings and senior left-hander Anthony Wolford, who has 25 strikeouts in 26 innings with a 3.77 ERA. Wolford also plays outfield for Liberty-Benton.
“We have a good mix of young and old,” Rader noted. “We’ve really concentrated on winning the close games and the big games this year. The majority of the close games we’ve been in we’ve won. A lot of it is concentrating on the little things and fundamentally doing stuff right. Last year we had mental lapses in games like that but this year we’re making plays. Now we’re finishing games off.”
Still, Rader admits to being a bit surprised with some of the success of the youth in the program.
“We start five sophomores and we’ve gotten a lot of production out of them,” Rader said. “Some of our young players are doing more than we expected at times.”
But the upperclassmen have helped out in a big way.
“Our seniors are playing their best baseball right now,” Rader added.
Could that be enough to get Liberty-Benton to the regional or even beyond?
“The biggest thing we need to do is just continue to do the little things right,” Rader explained. “Our offense is going to keep us in games. We have pitching depth that I think will keep us in it if our offense keeps it up. If the defense shows up, we have a chance.”