Receiving special honors at Trinity Lutheran’s baseball awards program were, front from left, Peyton Pollert, Kowan Gross, Levi Pottschmidt and Trenton Burton; back, Brody Brown, John Harris, Jonah Harker, Nathan Finke, Drake Goodpaster and Lincoln Huff.
Arv Koontz | The Tribune
Coach Ben Kleber lets his players on his Trinity Lutheran baseball team vote for post-season special honors for each season.
He said the voting for the most valuable this season was a virtual tie between Peyton Pollert and Jackson Trueblood, so he named them co-most valuable players at the team’s awards program Monday night.
Kleber said both players were major contributors to the Cougars’ success this spring.
Pollert topped the team in walks (18), and doubles (6), and was second on the team in average (.342) and runs (24) after he hit .206 his junior year and had nine walks.
“I don’t shy away from this, in the 15 years I’ve been coaching he’s the best centerfielder I’ve ever coached,” Kleber said.
Trueblood topped the Cougars in innings pitched (51.1), strike outs (67), and he was second in wins (4) and had an ERA of 3.68. He pitched against two 4A schools, against the Class 1A state champions, and threw against two regional champions.
He batted .312 and was second on the team in walks with 17, and had three doubles, three triples and only struck out 10 times.
Trenton Burton received the Coaches Award, Nathan Finke was the recipient of the most improved award, Levi Pottschmidt received the Cougar Award, Kowan Gross was named Pitcher of the Year, and Drake Goodpaster received Offensive Player of the Year honors.
Kleber said Finke had tremendous improvement as a catcher this spring and he finished third on the team in batting average at .324, and he tied for third on the team in walks with 13, and he had 13 doubles.
Kleber said Pottschmidt came to practice every day with a good attitude and worked hard. He batted .357 over the last 10 games and did a good job filling a leadership role all season.
Pitching Coach Jason Roeder presented the pitching award to Gross. He said Kowan had a rough opening game, giving up 10 earned runs, but he only gave up four earned runs the rest of the season as he came on strong and led the team in victories (5), and was second on the team in strike outs (43), innings (39.1), and an ERA of 2.49. He had a .075 ERA over his final 37 innings of work.
Goodpaster received the offensive award for leading the Cougars in batting (.342), and RBIs (25), and was second in doubles (5), and third in runs (16). Kleber said Goodpaster hit.421 the last half of the season.
Kleber had special praise for the seniors, Pollert, Chase Bode, Gross, Pottschmidt, and Burton. Burton changed from being a player as a junior to being a manager this season, and Kleber said he did an outstanding job filling that role.
“They (seniors) stayed the course of what we were always trying to do,” Kleber said. “I couldn’t be prouder of these guys the way they left the program. Fifteen wins is the most we have ever had, so that is something for them to be really proud of.”
He said all the seniors had grade point averages (GPA) of 3.5 or higher, and Pottschmidt earned academic all-state honors with a GPA of 3.97 and he scored 1300 on his SAT.
The Cougars had a rough start to their season, sitting at 1-9 before they turned things around by winning 14 of their last 17 games, to finish 15-12.
Those wins included winning the Shawe Memorial Sectional before falling to South Central in the Mitchell Regional.
“They battled all year,” Kleber said, “They believed in what we were doing, and it paid off at the end they were confident going into the sectional. Everybody contributed. Our strike outs were down to 6.5 per game.”
Pollert, Finke, Trueblood, and Goodpaster were named to the all-sectional team.
Kleber said the junior varsity had an excellent season.