Carson High junior Ethan Cook stretches to make a play at first base against McQueen on Friday. Cook is hitting .385.
Photo by Jeff Mulvihill, Jr. | InstaImage.
Carson High School baseball sits at 2-2 and will be looking toward its pitching and defense to win this spring.
Head coach Bryan Manoukian said Friday after the Senators’ first home game that the squad will need to limit runs allowed to help out an offense that has several young pieces.
“Our top five guys that we have right now need to need to be our guys,” said Manoukian. “Then hopefully we can get the younger guys time and experience and then they can kind of pick it up and come along toward the middle, end of the year.”
The Senators lost more than a half-dozen seniors from last season, including a pair of all-league selections.
PITCHING STAFF
Senior Will Raggett has a 2.00 ERA through his first seven innings (two starts), including three strikeouts. As a junior, he threw 27.1 innings and recorded 16 strikeouts.
Junior Ethan Cook, who came into Friday’s game and got a double play on one pitch, has a 3.81 ERA in 3.2 innings of work.
“Ethan … is going to need to carry some of the load on the pitching side,” said Manoukian. “Then our five guys that are you know, pitcher-only type guys, they're going to have to really step up and throw strikes for us.”
Senior Eli Locatelli has pitched in three of Carson’s first four games with six innings of work and a start.
Juniors Thomas Palmer, Kaiden Kuhlman and Max Mendoza have also pitched. Freshman Kodie Campbell has a pair of relief appearances.
“Kodie got two really good outings in Las Vegas,” Manoukian said. “He's going to have to step up and kind of bridge gaps for us.”
LINEUP AND DEFENSE
Senior centerfielder Tyler LaFollette has been the Senators’ leadoff hitter.
Last season, LaFollette hit .288 with three doubles and six RBIs, tallying 23 hits in 28 games played.
He’s already recorded three RBIs this season and is 5-for-14.
Sophomore Chase Grundy has three starts at catcher and one at second base while consistently being penciled into the No. 2 hole.
Grundy saw 50 at-bats as a freshman and is hitting .385 with a double.
Cook has been the Senators’ No. 3 hitter in all four games and has three RBIs. The junior has been at first base when not on the mound.
Sebastian Montes has three starts at third base and one at catcher, sliding into the fourth spot in the lineup. The junior is 6-for-12 at the plate.
Noah Hutchinson will play in the corners for Carson and has hit fifth or sixth in the first four games.
Campbell, who has a handful of starts in the infield at second base, has hit fifth and sixth as well.
Completing the infield is freshman Lucas LaFollette, who has been the Senators’ starting shortstop in every contest.
Junior Kale Thompson and senior Landon Martin are two other names that Senator fans can expect to see in the lineup.
Manoukian expects Carson to come along with time.
“We got to get them more physical and that'll come with time,” said Manoukian. “We just got to get them used to the pace and the strength of the game.”
(Sophomore Chase Grundy is hitting .385 for the Senators. Grundy and a few other underclassmen are expected to have major roles this season. / Jeff Mulvihill, Jr. | InstaImage)