The Talawanda baseball team’s quest for championship number 10 begins Wednesday and the conference schedule is soon to be underway.
Head Coach Matt Lykins had many words of encouragement after last year’s season.
“It felt really good,” Lykins said. “It was a solid bunch and a younger team that got it done, which was exciting.”
Last year, the Talawanda Brave won its second Southwest Ohio (SWOC) title in three years and the ninth in school history.
The Brave finished with a 13-14 overall record and an 8-1 SWOC record.
This campaign features many core contributors returning from last year’s championship season.
Senior pitcher and shortstop Eddie Tanner is one player looking to make the most of this season and continue the Braves’ winning ways.
Tanner has won two SWOC championships and has been a starter each year for Talawanda.
Tanner was also a SWOC first team selection last season and led the team in many offensive categories including runs batted in, triples and stolen bases. He led the team in strikeouts as a pitcher and had the lowest earned run average on the team at 2.33.
This year, he is looking to repeat that winning recipe.
“It’s great to be a champion,” Tanner said. “Being here for both championships is an awesome experience, and we have set the bar high for the players and the coaches.”
Tanner isn’t the only player returning from last year’s team. In fact, Talawanda lost only three players last season and is bringing back 11 seniors.
Some of those seniors, including Tanner, are: pitcher/outfielder Micah Daniels, center fielder/pitcher Ryan Wright and pitcher/third baseman Nathaniel Iden.
Wright and Daniels were both SWOC first team selections last year. Daniels was the conference pitcher of the year last season and led the team in strikeouts with 29.
Additionally, Iden was a SWOC second-team selection. He had the seventh-lowest ERA in the conference, 3.00 and was tied for tenth in the league in strikeouts, with 19.
Lykins has a lot of faith in his experienced staff, and he believes it will be a huge advantage throughout the season.
“It’s always really important. A lot of these guys have been here three-four years. Having guys in the program for that long, they see how we’ve done things and they’re really great for the younger guys to set the tone,” Lykins said.
With 15 upperclassmen on the roster, the Brave have the chance to repeat as conference champions for the first time in 23 years when the Brave won back to back championships in 2001 and 2002.
This season however has started slow for Talawanda.
The Brave are 0-5 after last week’s tournament in Florida.
This slow start however hasn’t discouraged two-way player Tanner.
“There is definitely stuff to improve, but stuff that’s going good at the same time,” he said. “We’re just working on the small things and just trying to build off of the Florida trip and improve where we need to improve.”
The Brave have been through slumps in the past including in last year, where they eventually won the SWOC championship.
In the home stretch last year, the Brave lost its final six regular season games before winning the conference championship.
Despite the slow start, Lykins has plenty of faith in his Brave team.
“We played a lot of really good competition, but the boys learned a lot and it’s gonna make us better coming back,” he said.
This season, the Brave are searching for their 10th conference championship, aiming to win three out of the last four and repeat as SWOC champions.
Talawanda will battle against the Northwest Knights in their first conference matchup of the year. First pitch is at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Talawanda High School.
