Kenton Ridge baseball eyes third straight conference crown

Every couple of years, Aaron Shaffer gives his players a quiz on Kenton Ridge baseball — an actual question-and-answer session on the rich tradition of the Cougars.

The 10th-year coach wants them to know the program has produced four major leaguers in Adam Eaton, Dustin Hermanson, Dave Burba and Rick White.

He makes sure his predecessor, Tom Randall, isn’t forgotten. The program founder had a 524-229 record in 29 years and took two teams to the state tourney.

And Shaffer wants his squad to realize how successful KR has been in producing college players — roughly 60 so far.

“A lot of kids come in and maybe they don’t know the history of how many college players we’ve had or how many guys have been drafted (six) and played in the major leagues,” Shaffer said. “I think it makes it more special to be a part of the program.

“Our job is to carry that tradition on and keep the program at a high level and win games and win league championships, and that’s what we plan to do this year.”

The Cougars will be bidding for their third straight Central Buckeye Conference division title. The only other time they’ve won three in a row was in the late 1980s. And they’ll have three college-bound players to lead the way.

Pitcher Kaleb Meeks, who has signed with Division I Northern Kentucky, is in his third year as a starter and went 4-2 last season with a 1.35 ERA and 57 strikeouts in 41 innings. He also batted .351.

“He has a hard breaking ball that really bites,” Shaffer said. “When he’s pounding the strike zone, he’s really, really tough to hit.”

Cedarville University-bound Noah Schleinitz was 3-0 with a 2.46 ERA last season. He also was sixth in the CBC with a .417 average.

Junior Brian Armentrout, who saw action his first two years, has been slowed by a shoulder injury but will be part of the rotation.

The Cougars had a team ERA of 2.33 last season, including a 1.27 mark in league play.

“We’ve been very fortunate to have guys who have found the strike zone and pitch to contact, and we make plays defensively. That’s the recipe for winning a lot of games in baseball at any level,” Shaffer said.

Senior Cameron Kettler, a catcher and first-baseman, also is being recruited. The three-year starter hit .345 last season. Senior outfielder Luke Holt also is a three-year starter. He hit .239 last season but batted .354 as a sophomore.

“That .239 is not the type of player he is,” Shaffer said. “We expect him to be a big-time bat in our lineup this year.”

Junior Drew Wichael will play the infield. He hit a homer in the Cougars’ opener this year, a 7-5, extra-inning loss to Waynesville on Saturday.

Junior Zach Schneider will bat lead-off and play centerfield, and freshman Calvin Dibert has cracked the lineup at shortstop.

The Cougars advanced to the state semifinals in Shaffer’s first year in 2008 and reached the district finals four other times since then. But while they went 20-6 and 24-4 the last two seasons, they’ve had just one postseason victory.

“We’ve had some early exits the last couple years, and we want to try to reverse that trend and make a deep run,” he said. “But our main goal is to three-peat in the league. We’ve talked about it all preseason.”

Helping hand: Washington Nationals outfielder Adam Eaton is in his sixth season in the majors and signed a five-year, $23.5-million deal in 2015. He's been generous with the KR program.

“I just got in the mail, about three weeks ago, three batting-practice mats — those things aren’t cheap — and baseballs. And he’s got the guys shoes this year. He’s really given back to us,” Shaffer said.

Revamped CBC: Losing Tippecanoe and Stebbins to the GWOC means the CBC will have two five-team divisions and play 13 league games instead of 16.

Urbana has joined the Kenton Division with KR, Bellefontaine, Tecumseh and Shawnee.

“There’s five teams that can win it. I think everybody is pretty even,” Shaffer said.

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