Early surge lifts Hays to WAC baseball crown

Liberal’s Kappelmann named POY for 2023

When Dustin Dreher looked at his 2023 spring baseball schedule, he hoped that by front-loading the Western Athletic Conference slate that his Indians would be able to get off to a good start.

His assessment proved correct as the Indians played all eight of their WAC games to begin the season, compiling an impressive 7-1 record that would prove to be enough to win the championship by two games over Dodge City’s 5-3 mark.

Liberal’s junior standout, Brooks Kappelmann, combined a strong season pitching with a solid offensive output and was voted the WAC’s Player of the Year by the respective coaches.

For Dreher, the season was a proverbial roller-coaster as the Indians would then play some of the top Class 5A and 6A teams in Kansas the remainder of the spring, winning just four more games and falling to rival Great Bend in the Class 5A regional semifinals to finish the year at 11-10.

However, the Indians proved to be the best of the WAC and that was enough to give Dreher a lot of positives for a team that lost multiple seniors from the 2022 team that dominated behind two-time WAC Player of the Year Dylan Dreiling.

While Dreher didn’t have anyone to match the 2021 pitching excellence of Dreiling or his 2022 hitting exploits, the Indians did enough to take seven of those eight WAC contests.

“We had a group of seniors (7) who got playing time in 2022 and while we lost some great players, I thought this group just found ways to win games, especially those early WAC contests,” Dreher said. 

The pitching was mostly by committee, Dreher said, as Greg Hughes went 3-3 with a team-high 38 innings pitched. Sophomore Carter Graham went 2-1 with 22 innings pitched and fellow underclassmen Cooper Johnson was 2-0 in 11 innings of work. The mound corps compiled an ERA of 4.54.

Hitting-wise, the Indians averaged just more than five runs a game while compiling a team batting average of .247. Junior Cooper Sanders was the top hitter for Dreher, posting a .313 average with 21 hits, 12 RBIs and 21 runs scored.

“Cooper’s a scrappy player for us,” Dreher said of Sanders. The head coach is looking forward to having a strong group returning for 2024 with expectations of bigger and better things, especially outside the WAC. “We played an incredibly tough schedule after WAC, so we know the things we have to improve if we want to get back to competing at the state level.”

The reference was to the 2021 Dreiling-led team that placed third in Class 5A state.

“The seniors we had this year had been playing together since third or fourth grade, so they’re baseball-wise very knowledgeable. They know and understand the game.”

Liberal’s Kappelmann helps youthful team in 2023

Brooks Kappelmann credits his coaches and his own ability to listen to them for his breakout season for the Redskins in a spring that saw his squad lose several heartbreakers.

The Redskins finished the overall spring with a 10-11 record and went 3-5 in the WAC, but the right-handed pitcher was good enough on the mound and at the plate to impress the league’s coaches when they voted him the 2023 WAC Player of the Year.

“It’s a great honor and it’s been great to play with my teammates,” Kappelmann said. “There’s a lot of other great players in the league, so I’m humbled to win this.”

Kappelmann’s pitching marks have to be evaluated closely to appreciate how good he was this season.

Despite a 4-4 won-loss record, Kappelmann pitched 51.1 innings, and more impressively compiled a 1.09 earned-run-average. He recorded 82 strikeouts while walking just 18. He added one save and yielded just 8 earned runs. His 82 strikeouts is believed to be a school record.

“I just listened to my coaches and worked on the mental side of the game,” Kappelmann said. “I just grew more and felt more comfortable and confident when I was pitching.”

Kappelmann said he improved his curveball but wants to fine tune his change-up heading into his senior season in 2024. He said his highlight game was a 7-2 victory over Dodge City when he went 6.2 innings before yielding the two runs.

When not pitching, Kappelmann was occupying the strategic shortstop position and also making life miserable for opposing pitchers.

“I think I was working hard to be a good leader on the field,” Kappelman said. “We had a young team and we made some mistakes throughout games. We lost some really tough games and we learned a lot and I think we will be much better next year for that reason.”

Two losses to Hays were by one and two runs; they had a one-run loss to Wichita North; a pair of one-run setbacks to Russell/Victoria and a two run loss to Dodge City were all games in which the Redskins had opportunities to win.

One of the best wins for the Redskins came on May 1 when they defeated Class 2A powerhouse Elkhart, 4-2. It was Elkhart’s first loss of the year and that Wildcat team finished third in the Class 2-1A state tournament last week.

He batted .394 while getting 26 hits in 66 at-bats. He had 20 RBIs and 20 runs scored. Nine of his 26 hits went for extra bases and he had an on-base percentage of .506.

“I think I was able to hit the ball harder this year and found some gaps,” Kappelmann said. “I got more power into the alleys. 

Joining Kappelmann on the WAC first-team was teammate Aidan Schwindt; Hays’ Cooper Sanders and Carson Spray; Garden City’s Hayden Bailey; Dodge City’s Arec Mendoza; and Great Bend’s Carson Umphres, Tyler Stuhlsatz, and Koehn Ribordy. Hays’ Dreher was voted Coach of the Year.

2023 WAC All-Conference Baseball

First Team Selections

	PLAYER	YEAR	POSITION	SCHOOL
1	J. Brooks Kappelmann	11	P/SS	Liberal
2	Carson Umphres	10	P/OF	Great Bend
3	Cooper Sanders	11	SS	Hays
4	Arec Mendoza	11	P/SS	Dodge City
5	Hayden Bailey	12	OF	Garden City
6	Tyler Stuhlsatz	12	IF/OF/P	Great Bend
7	Aidan Schwindt	11	C/SS	Liberal
8	Carson Spray	12	P/3B	Hays
9	Koehn Ribordy	9	OF/P	Great Bend

Second Team Selections

	PLAYER	YEAR	POSITION	SCHOOL
1	Zayden Martinez	11	P/OF	Liberal
2	Austin Elam	12	C/1B	Garden City
3	Manny Rodriguez	12	3B	Dodge City
4	Ian Premer	9	1B	Great Bend
5	Luis Varela	12	3B/P	Garden City
6	Bradyn Dreher	12	1B	Hays
7	Sage Riekenberg	12	C	Dodge City
8	Alex Schwindt	10	C/OF	Liberal
9	Edwin Chavez	12	2B/P	Great Bend