HiToms Baseball Season Preview with Daniel Frey

HiToms Ready for 2016 Season
courtesy of Daniel Frey with HiToms Baseball

High Point/Thomasville, N.C. – The High Point-Thomasville HiToms are coming off a season where they finished with a 26-30 overall record. That was the first year of the return of head coach Brian Rountree. As the season looms, the players are starting to roll in to Finch Field.

“This year, the amount of experienced at bats we have coming in is what stands out,” HiToms head coach Brian Rountree said. “We’re looking for kids that want to be here and understand what summer baseball is about and who want to get better for their (college) programs. There’s some kids in there that might have a chance to play on TV.”

Like every team in the Coastal Plain League, some players are wrapping up conference tournaments and waiting for regional play. The HiToms and their players are expecting great chemistry to be built up as the season progresses with one goal in mind.

“We set our eyes on the playoffs,” Rountree said. “You got to get to the playoffs before you can win a cup and we’ve won three cups here. Every guy that we recruited here understands where we stand with that.”

In the outfield a couple of teammates from Texas State, Teddy Hoffman and Derek Scheible will come in with experience to join players such as Callahan Moltzan (Scottsdale Community College), Coll Stanley (Texas A&M) and Brad Jarreau Middle Tennessee State). To fill the infield, players like Hunter Slater (Southern Miss) will move up to join Cesar Trejo (UNC-Greensboro) and Daniel Sullivan (Gardner-Webb) among others.

For most of last season, the HiToms led the CPL in pitching and they look to reload with arms like Kael Jones (LSU-Alexandria), Stevie Powers (Southern Miss), Reid Clements Middle Tennessee State), Taylor Sugg (UNC-Chapel Hill) and Ryan Kahny (Catawba College).

Behind the plate Chris Proctor (Duke) and Wyatt Cross (UNC-Chapel Hill) are finishing their college seasons with Zac Almond locally from Catawba College coming in right away to catch.

No one player has stood out yet on the HiToms roster with an emphasis being put on playing as a team.

“One player doesn’t make a team,” Rountree said. “It takes all of us to make any one of us successful, no one does it by themselves. I want fans to know that even if we lose that we played hard and the right way.”

Many more fun promotions are scheduled at Finch Field this season such as Scout Night, YMCA Night and Fit N Fun Night.

The 2016 season officially starts tomorrow Saturday, May 28 at 7 p.m. against Kernersville at Finch Field with fireworks following the game.