Young Spartans baseball squad is a team on the rise

The Mountain Brook High School baseball team did not enter the 2021 season with a great deal of expectation.

That was in stark contrast to 2020, when the Spartans entered the season expected to be one of the top teams in the state, and they lived up to that billing in every way.

But that team never got the chance to see things through to the end and graduated a large number of seniors, leaving this year’s group as a relatively green one without much previous experience.

But through the first month and a half of the season, there were plenty of bright spots for a team on the rise.

“I’m excited with where we are,” Mountain Brook head coach Lee Gann said. “We’ve probably won a few games we shouldn’t have won and lost a few we shouldn’t have lost. I’m really proud of our guys and how we’ve competed and how hard they play the game.”

Through March 26, when the Spartans completed their pre-area slate, they sat with a 16-8 record. But they knew all too well that those games were merely the precursor to the final six, in which those games with Class 6A, Area 9 foes would determine the fate of their season.

Unfortunately for the Spartans, they went 1-5 in area play, those five losses by a combined 12 runs. Chelsea and Homewood advanced into the postseason from an area that also included Briarwood.

Gann gave a great deal of credit to the team’s four seniors, Brennan Holden, Brock Payne, Tanner Plummer and Braxton Wetzler. They have steadied the ship for a group of younger players still getting their feet in varsity baseball. Through the season’s first 24 games, Gann said somewhere around 13 sophomores had competed in game action and five or six play nearly every game.

Holden and Wetzler headlined the pitching staff and excelled to this point and are excelling in the dual role of performing on the mound and serving as leaders for the younger pitchers on the team.

“Both of them just love to compete and you can tell by the way they approach the game. They’ve done a really nice job, especially being seniors and helping these guys along and showing them what it takes to compete,” Gann said.

Wetzler was also productive at the plate, as one of three Spartans with over 20 runs batted in through March. Gabe Young and Patch Lyman also swung the bat well, for an offensive Gann labeled as opportunistic.

“It’s not the same guy every day, that’s for sure,” Gann said. “We’ve had a bunch of different guys have great games and that’s been a good thing.”

Gann was impressed with how his team avoided losing streaks this season and kept a level demeanor through the highs and lows. He pointed to a victory over Hueytown in the opening stretch of the season as one that showed the team what it was capable of and instilled confidence in the group.

Mountain Brook finished the year with a 17-13 mark, but all signs point toward another strong team next season. The Spartans sophomores and juniors will have a year of varsity ball under their belt, and the team will likely have high expectations heading into 2022.