Once again the West Orange-Stark Mustangs seemed to peak at the end of the baseball season. A year after making it to the state finals West Orange-Stark advanced last year to the third round of the state playoffs before being eliminated.
This year the Mustangs are loaded with returning starters for Coach Shea Landry. Both Jack and Chad Dallas are back on the mound and at the plate. Holding down first base for a second straight season is Kaleb Ramsey. K. J. Miller will rotate between the middle infield positions of shortstop and second base. Anchoring third base again is Ryan Ragsdale. Starting in center is Blake Robinson who patrolled the outfield there last season. Keyshawn Holman has the upper hand in leftfield since he played there last year.
Several holes in the West Orange-Stark lineup can be filled with players Landry used part-time last season. Actually BB Tezeno who normally was the designated hitter played some second base last year when Miller was injured. He will battle for the starting position there with Tre’ Bernard who helped back up Miller in the last campaign. Bernard will also see some time behind the plate as catcher. Landry indicated he is looking for a rightfielder. He may have found one in senior Te’ron Brown. “He did not end up playing last year and he’s been working out there,” Landry summarizes.
Speed is a large part of the offense, but Coach Landry does have some Mustangs that can swing the bat. Their top four out of five hitters return with only Payton Robertson gone to Lamar. Miller batted over .400 last season, Jack Dallas swings the bat well, Ragsdale should have another big year according to the coach, and Tezeno hit close to .300 for WO-S. Chad Dallas, Ramsey, Robinson, and Holman have a year under their belt hitting varsity pitching and their averages should go up Landry predicts. He is hoping for contributions from positions five through nine in the batting order to give the Mustangs a good season at the plate. “There’s going to be a lot of small ball, a lot of bunting, running, and utilizing the speed we have,” Landry professes.
Although Landry is blessed to have a number of quality arms to use on the mound the topic of Mustang pitching starts with Jack Dallas who has been a starter the last two seasons. His brother Chad has had a good summer and will most likely form the one-two punch on the mound for West Orange-Stark. In relief Ragsdale can throw, Ramsey is a left hander, Miller will throw a little bit as will Tezeno. Landry analyzed, “I think Jack and Chad will be our top two, I need to have a good corps of relief closer guys, and we’ll work on them to just throw it around the plate, throw strikes, and let their defense work behind them.”
Coach Landry does not want to sound redundant, but making the playoffs is the most important goal as the Mustangs showed the last two years advancing all the way to the state finals in 2015. Landry admits it still will not be easy in this district. He believes if the Mustangs get good pitching like he thinks they will and their sticks can hit heat up a little bit WO-S will finish in the top four of the district. “It’s going to be a dogfight, so each night you’ve got to come prepared to play.” Landry concludes.
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