By: Nathan Bloechl — sports@kilj.com
Amana Colonies — Brent Broeker’s Mount Pleasant Panther baseball team will open their season on the road tonight when they travel to take on the Clippers of Clear Creek-Amana.
Mount Pleasant, who finished last year 15-7, is in the business of replacing their top five hitters from last year in Corbin Broeker (Iowa Wesleyan), Jaxon Hoyle, Clayton Lowery (DMACC), Rylan Seberg (Indian Hills CC) and Nik Coble (SCC).
This year, they’ll rely heavily on seniors Jack Johnson and Chase Williamson.
Johnson hit .302 last season while driving in 10 runs. Williamson, who has started since his sophomore campaign, hit a robust .392 a year ago.
Tonight, it’s expected that Johnson will toe the slab on opening night.
Last year in three starts, Johnson compiled a 1-1 record with a 5.00 ERA. He struck out 12 in 21 innings.
Clear Creek-Amana is coming off one of their most successful seasons in years, finishing 16-6 falling in the opening round of the Class 3A State Baseball tournament to Norwalk.
The return top of the rotation arm Brock Reade who went 4-0 in his junior season last year, throwing 30 innings of 2.10 baseball.
Parker Smith is their leading returning hitter. The junior hit .435 last year with a home run and 14 runs batted in.
Tonight’s game will get underway at 7:00 p.m.
You can listen on FM 105.5 and kilj.com.