Senior first baseman Sammy Seeger and his Van Buren Pointer basepectations,” teammates were pretty calm after they clinched the 5A-West championship Monday afternoon.
It was almost as if they expected it.
“We came out here with high ex- Seeger said. “We came out here with state championship thoughts.
'Obviously, that’s still in the picture. Conference champs is great to say, but the job’s not finished yet.”
Van Buren clinched its first outright conference baseball championship since 1995 with a 4-1 win over Siloam Springs in the opening game of the final 5A-West doubleheader of the regular season. They punctuated the title with a 13-0 win in the nightcap at Iverson Riggs Field at the Field of Dreams Complex.
The Pointers won their fifth baseball conference title in all, last sharing a championship in 2010.
“That’s going to be something that’s remembered around here for a long time,” Seeger said. “I’m glad I could be a part of it and a leader in it.
'I love these guys. I’m glad I could win it with them. They’re going to be lifelong brothers to me, everybody on this team from the freshmen to the seniors.”
Seeger has stepped into
the starting lineup, filling a hole at first base left by graduation as well as batting cleanup in the middle the order.
He is one of nine seniors along with Luke Hughes, Hunter Cox, Easton Reichard, Jaiden Henry, Haden Roark, Connor Johnson, Tanner Callahan, and Braxton Dorrough.
“We have a lot of them that we count on and that play, but even the ones that aren’t out there everyday have found roles on the team whether it’s pinch-hitting or courtesy running or playing defense for an inning,” Van Buren coach Luke Weatherford said. “I really feel good because they’ve all been able to be involved this year. That’s always nice when you have seniors for them to have some sort of role.”
Monday, the Pointers kept their eyes on a bigger prize.
“We’ve had a fun year,” said Callahan, a catcher. “We didn’t really talk about winning a conference championship. We want a state championship.”
Johnson was the winning
pitcher in the first game, capping a perfect regular season with his ninth win in nine starts. He also has thrown 41 consecutive innings without yielding an earned run.
Van Buren (21-6, 12-2) will open the Class 5A state tournament at 10 a.m. on May 13 at Nettleton against the fourth seed from the 5A-South.
The conference championship comes in Weatherford’s first year at the helm of the Pointers after David Loyd’s retirement last year.
“I’m not sure how much I had to do with it, but we knew we had a good team coming back this year,” Weatherford said. “I just wanted to make sure and put the guys in the right spots and give them a chance to succeed.”
