Winter weather delays start of spring season – Millard County Chronicle Progress

Delta, Millard field young baseball teams

You know it’s spring when the bats start to swing—or when the runners sprint, or when the tennis balls fly.

High school kids throughout the region are gearing up for their spring sports seasons. The Chronicle Progress talked to area coaches about the new season, their expectations and whether their athletes were ready for the challenges ahead.

BASEBALL

Both Delta and Millard high schools will field young teams this season.

Cory Webb, Delta High’s head baseball coach, says the Rabbits will take the field this season with just two returning seniors.

“We’re young, super young,” he said. “But I feel like we have a lot of talent. We’re going to have some bumps in the road because we’re so young. But it bodes well for the future because we have a lot of kids who work hard for us.”

The Rabbits showed true grit in the season’s first-outing, a non-conference game against North Sanpete on March 5. The teams, tied at 3 apiece, added seven extra innings to the game.

“We went 14 innings and lost it. But we saw a lot of good things. We fought hard, we played hard. We had some chances to win the game. We just left a few too many runners on base,” Webb said. “Pitching looked good. We pitched well. Hitting-wise, we were a little bit rusty. That was our first live pitching off the mound all season. You could tell we were a little bit rusty, need a little bit of work there. I think we’ll continue to grow as we continue on.”

Webb said Carbon High is the team to beat this season. Union and Juab will also present challenges in the 3A.

“Hopefully by the time region play rolls around we’ll be in the mix with them,” Webb said.

Delta played south Summit at home on Tuesday.

Jeremy Teeples, Millard High’s baseball coach, said his team’s first two games were cancelled last week due to weather.

Teeples’ Eagles are a young team as well after losing nine seniors last year to graduation.

“We have five returning starters,” the coach said. “We’re going to be really young. We got 15 kids between our freshmen and sophomores, out of our 20, so we’re really young.”

The Millard Eagles play in the 2A central region, their third region in three seasons. This year Teeples thinks Gunnison and North Sevier will pose the biggest challenges to his team, which went 13-13 last year and made the playoffs.

“We have great senior leadership. Our season will come down to whether our freshmen and sophomores can step up and get ready by the post season. Our goal is to be ready by the post season and make a run,” he said.

The Eagles host American Leadership Academy this week before heading to a shootout in Salina this weekend.

SOFTBALL

Brian Wade is hoping his Lady Eagles live up to their potential this season.

The Millard High softball coach will see six starters return to the line-up, include last year’s starting pitcher.

“We feel real good about our chances. There’s two teams that are probably top tier of the 2A. I feel like we’re just right below them. Anything could happen at any time,” Wade said.

The biggest challenge for the Lady Eagles this season will most likely come from Gunnison and Enterprise, Wade said.

Last week’s opener was cancelled over weather, so the ladies will hit the field for the first time this season on Wednesday against South Summit. That game starts at 3:30 p.m.

Marcie Taylor, Delta High’s softball coach, is in her second year as head coach. She says she has a really young group of girls this season.

“But a very talented group,” she said.

The Lady Rabbits team will consist of four freshmen, four sophomores, two juniors, and three seniors, Taylor said.

Asked about the competition this year, Taylor admitted 3A, Region 14 was tough.

Juab, Union and Carbon will likely give the Rabbits their biggest challenge.

Their season opener was also cancelled due to weather. Delta opens the season Wednesday with a home game against American Leadership Academy. The ladies go to St. George this weekend for a warm-up tournament.

TRACK & FIELD

A good debut for both Millard and Delta high schools’ track teams will take place on March 16 at the Old Capitol Invitational in Fillmore.

The Eagles track team consists of 70 athletes, almost evenly split between girls and boys. The boys team took state last year.

“We’ve got some good kids returning, but we did lose some good kids,” said Millard track coach Cody Moat. “We have a lot of young ones. We’ve got great athletes, we’ve lost great athletes, and we have a lot of young athletes.”

Moat said Beaver would be the team to beat for the boys. Parowan will be tough competition for the girls.

Millard will play about 10 invitationals this season.

“We have some good distance runners, some good sprinters. We’ll have some good jumpers, good throwers. It’s hard to pick one area we’re going to be, which is how you want it, good athletes in all the areas, which I think we do,” Moat said.

Clint Peterson, the girls track coach at Delta High, said his group, coming off a second-place finish in state last year, will field a strong sophomore class this season.

A couple of runners competed at Snow Canyon last weekend. But Capitol Days will be the whole group’s first outing.

“Our strength in our girls team will be our hurdlers,” Peterson said, adding that the team will also be competitive in the 400-meter and shorter sprints.

TENNIS

Boys tennis season at Delta will begin March 14, with a home match against Richfield.

Coach Robert Banks said he’s Gove four senior and a junior this season, along with seven freshmen and sophomores.

“We have kind of a young team, lost a lot of seniors last year. We only have two returning, lettered varsity players,” he said.

Banks added that stiff competition this season is expected against Carbon, Juan and Gunnison.

“We compete with the private schools a little bit better,” he said.