New Kid In Town: Wolves Prepare For 4A Baseball

LINCOLN — There’s a new kid in town in the 4A-1 baseball Conference.

Lincoln, which competed successfully against every league team except Ozark last year while a member of the 3A-1 Conference, has moved up in classification and replaces Shiloh Christian in the 4A-1.

Pitchers

The Wolves’ rotation has six pitchers competing. Returning are Dakota Riggin, Drew Harris, Tyler Cummings, Cord McCaslin and Dalton Simmons.

“We’re going to be young on the mound,” Harris said. “All pitched some varsity last year, it just wasn’t a lot.”

Payton Hulse, who played as a freshman but sat out last year is coming back out and may add depth to the rotation while Cummings is coming off an ACL injury from the football season, yet is expected to contribute.

“We don’t have Zach Summers and Cheyenne Vaughn, guys you can count on to go seven innings. We’ll have to manage our pitching a little better,” Harris said.

Infield

The Wolves are shuffling players around, looking for the right fit. Of the returning starters, Riggin will shift from third base to catcher and Drew Harris, who played second base in 2012, is likely going to short stop.

Caleb Ayers, a sophomore who started on the Lincoln JV last year, will compete for first base with Colton Barnum, who decided to concentrate on football and didn’t stay out for baseball last season, another possibility

Top candidates for second base are McCaslin, Hulse and Zach Hall with Hulse also getting a look at third along with Jessie Claybrook.

Outfield

Cummings and Jacob Hernandez both started last year and return to man the outfield. Sophomore Lane Maddox played right field on the 2012 Lincoln junior varsity and has made some steps in progressing as an outfielder according to Harris. Also available is Kyle Hamby, who skipped his sophomore season on the diamond last year, but has come back out as a junior.

Overview

Lincoln has only two seniors on this year’s roster but a host of players, who didn’t go out for baseball last season, have returned.

“We lost two good pitchers in Cheyenne Vaughn and Zach Summers, but those guys didn’t always pitch when we played the 4A-1 teams,” said Lincoln coach Brad Harris. “Pitching takes you a long ways in baseball but I feel like we’re going to be able to compete. We’ll be pretty young, we have to grow up in a hurry.”

Last season in head to head matchups, Lincoln split with U.S. 62 rival, Prairie Grove, and swept Farmington on the diamond. The Wolves also recorded victories over Berryville, Gentry, Gravette and Pea Ridge.