By Jeremy McDonald
Jeremymcdonald73@gmail.com
MOUNT ANGEL, Ore.– For a team that lost a bunch of firepower from their 2023 State Championship Winning squad, the Kennedy Baseball team bounced back pretty strongly this past season with a lot of new faces. The new-look Trojans went 21-7 overall last year and reached the 2A/1A State Quarterfinals before falling to eventual State Runner-Up Knappa.
It’s been part of the Kennedy Standard of sorts through the years and decades that Trojan Head Coach Kevin Moffat has been at the helm of the program. Great players have come and gone through the program, leaving that standard of working hard, and good things will happen.
“We’ve been fortunate enough to have a lot of good baseball players here, to be honest, and we still have some pretty good baseball players. The success that those guys have for sure is something for the younger guys to look up to. More than anything, the guys see how hard those kids have worked, and they want to be like that. They know they have to put in the work. Those guys didn’t become great baseball players without working hard, and they’ve done a great job,” Moffat said.
Kennedy returns some important starters to anchor the team once again this season. Henry Beyer and Colby Rich each were All-League Players, Rylee Walker returns as catcher. Brody Panuke and Gio Vaquera returned after starting for the Trojans last season.
But there’s going to be big holes to fill from the five seniors that graduated last year. Brody Kleinschmit and Dom Beyer were All-State dudes. Isaac Berning was an All-League guy, and Oscar Gonzalez was the Trojans DH. But that’s the thrill of the position that Moffat is in as a Head Coach.
He has 13 dudes that are pretty even, and he’s looking forward towards those position battles and using their non-league slate to figure out how this squad is going to look by the time league play begins.
“We lost some serious firepower. Dom led our team in every statistical category that we have. Those are some big shoes to fill. Those guys were good in the lineup. They were two of our top pitchers. They were our leaders. That’s going to be the question, can we replace that kind of stuff for sure,” Moffat said. “It’s going to be interesting because we don’t have an Ethan Kleinschmit or a Luke (Beyer), Brody Kleinschmit even. We have 13 guys that are all kind of close. Hopefully, we get those first couple of games in because we’re going to see some position battles going on….which is kind of fun. It’s different.
“I knew two years ago who was starting last year I had a pretty decent idea. But it was still an unknown last year, but this year, and they’re all even. We’ll have at it, and a lot of guys will get to play. But yeah, we’re going to see.”
But that’s what keeps bringing the 20-year Kennedy Head Coach back. The game and the kids and community who invest as much time in the sport as he does.
Kennedy will be on the road for the first three weeks of the season starting on March 17 when they travel to Scio. The Trojans’ first home game of the season will be on April 3 when they host Knappa.
Photos By Jeremy McDonald
