Baseball camp: Fun and fly balls

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for the tribune

More than 90 kids participated in Seymour’s annual baseball camp at Seymour High School last week.

The kids, grade kindergarten to freshmen, were divided into three different age groups as the camp aimed for the kids to have fun and learn about baseball.

“Number one, we want to have fun,” Owls varsity coach and camp director Jeremy Richey said.

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“We want to teach something. We do a lot of drills. Every day the first 45 minutes to an hour covers drills, and then we let them play a little bit, especially as we move toward the end of the week.

“We want kids interested in playing baseball. We want them to have a good time, so they’ll want to come back next year and keep playing baseball.”

Evan Baurle, 14, enjoyed learning how to better field the ball and pitch.

“We’ve learned how to catch fly balls, and which way to turn,” Baurle said. “On the windup (pitching) I learned that you need to take a tiny step back before you throw the ball.”

Since Baurle is a pitcher and an incoming freshmen, he said knew much of the pitching drills already.

Camp counselor D.J. Henkle said, “We are trying to expose them to the way we do things at Seymour High School. We are trying to expose them to every aspect of the game; base running, hitting, fielding.

“(On Wednesday), my group is working on fielding They’ll all do infield, outfield, and catching. We already did a day of all pitching, and we did a day of all hitting. Tomorrow will be a game day where we’ll have some competitions and a chance to play some games in the outfield here.”

Trever Stuckwisch, 13, said he likes fielding.

“I’ve learned on catching fly balls, how you take the angles, and the stepping of feet on catching,” Stuckwisch said.

Stuckwisch just finished baseball at Seymour Middle School.

The very young players had a great time as well. Mack Longmeier, 7, likes the camp, he said.

“I’m learning how to hit and play field, and I’m learning the stances you can be in,” Longmeier said.

Eight-year-old Noah Wineinger added, “I learned how to hit better. They taught me some things to do to make your arms stronger, and they helped us on some pitching drills. Baseball is my favorite sport. I’ll come back next year.”

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