Thursday, Jul. 03, 2008

South’s Schneider coming back strong

This past spring was supposed to be the season Mike Schneider made a name for himself on the baseball field.

Schneider was a junior at Olathe South with a promising bat who already had varsity time under his belt. He seemed primed to compete for a starting position at third base.

It all came crashing down, though, during a simple game of pick-up basketball in March, before the baseball season started. Schneider broke his ankle, an injury that required surgery and weeks of hard rehab.

His once-promising junior season was reduced to just three games at the end of the year.

“It was hard just knowing that I wasn’t able to help out my team,” Schneider said.

Schneider is making up for lost time with South’s Senior Legion baseball team this summer, though.

He went 11-for-16 at the plate with six doubles and seven RBIs in the Midwest Showcase tournament last weekend at Johnson County 3&2 field.

With Schneider leading the way, South hit .419 as a team and scored 57 runs in six games, going 5-1 and winning the tournament.

“It feels pretty good just being able to swing the bat that well after having a rough spring season,” Schneider said. “I have to regain everything. Get back to normal with my swing and running and fielding.”

Schneider’s output was part of a contagious offensive effort, as Jack Bond, Zach Roberts, Corey Heintz, Kegan Knight and Danny White also hit well.

Bond, Roberts and Knight combined for 27 runs in the tourney, while Schneider’s seven RBIs led the team.

“He’s a big power bat, a big guy and we missed him this spring,” Knight said of Schneider. “When he came back it helped us a lot. He’s constantly hitting balls in the gap and helping us score runs.”

Though it can’t be attributed entirely to Schneider’s return, the Falcons have been playing much better baseball since he came back. Coming off a 7-14 season in the spring, they were 21-9 in Legion ball after the Midwest Showcase.

“I think it just takes us a little longer to get into the flow of things,” Knight said. “For some reason our defense comes around, pitching comes around and our hitting — we’ve been hitting the ball real well this summer. It takes us the whole spring year and for some reason in the summer we just get going.”

Many of the Legion players will likely be key parts of next spring’s varsity squad, including Knight, Heintz and pitcher Corbin Pierson, who played a lot of third base in Schneider’s absence last year. The Falcons are eager to improve on last spring’s record, though it will be challenging after coach Carl Garrett recently announced he would be stepping down to take a job as vice principal of Prairie Trail Junior High School.

With the prospect of getting used to a new coach looming next spring, this summer’s success and Schneider’s emergence has become more important to the Falcons.

“We’re getting everything back to normal in summer ball, getting really good and doing some team bonding,” Schneider said. “I feel like I have to step up and be a leader in the spring also.”

Now all he needs to do is be very careful on the basketball court during the off-season.

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