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Hornets ready for districts
By Bill Knust
North Kansas City High baseball coach Jeff Klein just wants to play games.
Between rainouts and having other teams cancel to make up conference games, the Hornets have lost seven games this season.
That has Klein looking for other ways to keep his team fresh.
“We just have to keep trying to make practices as meaningful as possible,” Klein said. “We have to have as much live-type of stuff as possible to keep everybody fresh and sharp. You just want to do the best you can.”
A week ago, Northtown faced the unenviable task of facing Blue Springs, Blue Springs South and Lee’s Summit North three days straight.
“I had no pitching left. I pitched my starting catcher (Bret Moehlman), who hasn’t pitched an inning of baseball in his high school career, against Blue Springs South, the No. 2 team in the state, and we lost 7-5,” Klein said.
Results like that have Klein feeling confident heading into the Class 4 District 15 tournament next week.
“It is encouraging, because I think we are playing a lot better,” Klein said. “All three of those games, I think we could have won. We have a couple of tough teams in our districts, but kind of like last year, we have taken our lumps, and I think we are ready to go.”
The five-team district will begin with a game between the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds Monday, April 12 at 4 p.m at Truman High. The seeds were not known at press time, but Klein would not mind if the Hornets were a four or five seed this season.
“Normally I would say it would be a big disadvantage,” Klein said. “But the way things are going this year, I almost wouldn’t mind playing that game just to give us another game since we have been rained out so much.”
Even though Northtown is below .500 (6-12), Klein is hoping the Hornets’ strength of schedule catches the other coaches’ attention.
“I think strength of schedule is also as equally important,” Klein said. “I think we will have an advantage seed-wise knowing what happened last year. Last year, we were the fourth seed because of our record, and ended up winning it.”
The district tournament was the beginning of a magical run that saw the Hornets storm through the district and then take out Oak Park in sectionals before falling to eventual state champion Blue Springs South in the quarterfinals.
“I still feel confident that we have a chance,” Klein said. “We have kind of been in a rough stretch wins and losses-wise, but I think we are playing pretty well.”
Sports writer Bill Knust can be reached at 389-6605 or billknust@npgco.com.
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Between rainouts and having other teams cancel to make up conference games, the Hornets have lost seven games this season.
That has Klein looking for other ways to keep his team fresh.
“We just have to keep trying to make practices as meaningful as possible,” Klein said. “We have to have as much live-type of stuff as possible to keep everybody fresh and sharp. You just want to do the best you can.”
A week ago, Northtown faced the unenviable task of facing Blue Springs, Blue Springs South and Lee’s Summit North three days straight.
“I had no pitching left. I pitched my starting catcher (Bret Moehlman), who hasn’t pitched an inning of baseball in his high school career, against Blue Springs South, the No. 2 team in the state, and we lost 7-5,” Klein said.
Results like that have Klein feeling confident heading into the Class 4 District 15 tournament next week.
“It is encouraging, because I think we are playing a lot better,” Klein said. “All three of those games, I think we could have won. We have a couple of tough teams in our districts, but kind of like last year, we have taken our lumps, and I think we are ready to go.”
The five-team district will begin with a game between the No. 4 and No. 5 seeds Monday, April 12 at 4 p.m at Truman High. The seeds were not known at press time, but Klein would not mind if the Hornets were a four or five seed this season.
“Normally I would say it would be a big disadvantage,” Klein said. “But the way things are going this year, I almost wouldn’t mind playing that game just to give us another game since we have been rained out so much.”
Even though Northtown is below .500 (6-12), Klein is hoping the Hornets’ strength of schedule catches the other coaches’ attention.
“I think strength of schedule is also as equally important,” Klein said. “I think we will have an advantage seed-wise knowing what happened last year. Last year, we were the fourth seed because of our record, and ended up winning it.”
The district tournament was the beginning of a magical run that saw the Hornets storm through the district and then take out Oak Park in sectionals before falling to eventual state champion Blue Springs South in the quarterfinals.
“I still feel confident that we have a chance,” Klein said. “We have kind of been in a rough stretch wins and losses-wise, but I think we are playing pretty well.”
Sports writer Bill Knust can be reached at 389-6605 or billknust@npgco.com.