Over the past year the improvement seen on the varsity baseball team has been tremendous. LACES is currently tied for 2nd place in the Western League, up two places from last year, in which they finished 4th in the league. The team also beat Palisades for the first time in over a decade on Wednesday, April 17, with a final score of 6-1. Greatly contributing to this growth has been sophomore Jack Stutz.
In the past year Stutz has made many changes in an effort to better the team. A resounding effect of this effort has been his impressive increase in batting average since his last season.
“It wasn’t great [last season],” said Stutz. “I definitely improved, I think, on my discipline and my ability to make contact with the ball.”
This would be an understatement. Stutz has proven himself to be an exemplary hitter this season, with a batting average of .419 at the time of this publication, a significant refinement from his last season batting average of .260.
This is not the only area Stutz has developed his skills in, as he has also grown into one of the star pitchers of the LACES team. He has also shown prominence in his pitching, pitching four games at the time of this writing, and winning three.
More impressive than his changes since last year has been his performance this year’s season. Aside from his batting average, his pitching has also been spectacular, pitching six and one-thirds innings of no-hit ball against University High School.
“He put all of his weapons in one outing, and it just worked out, and the team was super happy, and we expect that from him every outing,” said senior Kyler Yu.
Stutz himself remarks about this impressive feat with humility.
“I mean, who knows,” said Stutz. “I was pretty locked in that day. I felt good and I think that did contribute to my game that day.”
With Stutz still being a sophomore, he will undoubtedly be a leading figure on the team next year. Fortunately, the seniors are not worried about this change in leadership.
“Jack is someone that all the underclassmen can look up to. I’d say he’s a great leader,” said Yu. “With Jack being a promising leader, I think he can help these guys help the new ones coming in and just show them what it means to be on the LACES baseball team.”
Stutz himself does not let this pressure get to his head, focusing on positive goals to achieve.
“I’m just focusing on getting a good season this year.”
This season, his performance has transformed the team for the better, and with him still being a sophomore there are hopes of more improvement to make a truly dominant LACES team in later seasons.
“He has talent that isn’t possessed by everyone else, so he was able to slide into this more important role on the team, and he’s just getting more (talent),” said Yu.
