Coaches Corner: VW’s Charlie Witten

SCOTT TRUXELL/independent sports editor

When the Van Wert Cougars have been able to take the field this baseball season, they’ve enjoyed a good deal success.

Including Tuesday night’s 3-1 victory over visiting Kenton, the Cougars are 7-2 (3-2 Western Buckeye League), and longtime head coach Charlie Witten said there have been plenty of positives.

“One big thing the team has done well is get contributions from all 16 players on the varsity level,” Witten said. “In nine games, every player on our team has at least one hit and all but one player have had an RBI and run scored. We knew we would have depth at all positions this year.”

“With the limited number of games we have played due to the weather, it has been even more challenging getting everyone playing time,” Witten continued.

Van Wert’s pitching staff has been more than solid, and Witten said while it starts with Lawson Blackmore, others have have played a key role.

“He (Blackmore) brings a very live arm to the mound every night, as well as a work ethic that is second to none,” Witten stated. “The next three guys could go in any order right now (as far as who is No. 2, 3 or 4) in our rotation).”

“Senior Holden Willingham is pretty consistent throwing strikes with all of his pitches. “Junior Hayden Maples has been a pitcher who came out of nowhere last year to have a good year on the mound. He has picked up right where he left off last year – he mixes in a good old fashioned knuckle ball in his repertoire.”

“Freshman Owen Treece brings a great deal of composure as well as competitiveness to the mound. He did not allow a hit in his first 10 innings pitched in varsity baseball. The other pitchers who round out our pitching staff are junior Jake Lautzenheiser and sophomores Parker Conrad & Keaton Brown.”

Witten said when the Cougars are able to play more games, the team will be more consistent at the plate.

“There is no substitution for live game reps either on offense, defense, or on the mound,” Witten explained. “The other thing that playing more games will allow us to do is to get a routine of rotating our 16 players.”

Makeup games and the pending tournament games mean the Cougars will have to play a rather large number of games in a relatively short amount of time.

“The biggest challenge ahead will be balancing the number of games we will need to play to finish our regular season with our tournament schedule once we get that figured out this weekend,” Witten said. “I believe our depth will be critical as we enter into a stretch where we could potentially play eight games in a 10 day period of time.”

Van Wert will host county rival Crestview today, then will return to WBL competition Friday at Elida.