About 20 minutes after Friday’s 10-0, six-inning shutout of Bellevue, Campbell County baseball coach Scott Schweitzer praised the value of arrogance, greed and selfishness on the diamond.
“When you’re arrogant, you start to believe you’re better and you show up and things go,” Schweitzer said.
A few minutes later, Schweitzer took back what he said – but only a little.
“There is an arrogance, that you’ve got to feel like that you’re better than somebody, and you’ve got to play,” Schweitzer said. “… I don’t mean that in a negative light when I say the word ‘arrogant.’ I mean, I think that’s a good trait of an athlete.
“The better word than arrogance and greedy and selfish would be ‘competitors’,” Schweitzer said. “That’s what I try to make in all our kids. People have gotten complacent, and since COVID, people have gotten really complacent … and if you’re able to compete and survive competition, you can be successful in life.”
Whether you consider the Camels arrogant, greedy, selfish or competitive, two more words apply – pretty good. Campbell County is the two-time defending 10th Region champion and 8-3 so far this season.
Talk to any of the Camels, and the conversation can easily veer into topics other than the rpm of a pitcher’s fastball.
“Our bus rides are the funnest bus rides, I believe, in the region,” senior shortstop Aydan Hamilton said. “We’re just out there to enjoy the game. No matter if we fail, no matter if we strike out, we always learn from our mistakes and move on.”
Another topic emerges among players and parents: earliest baseball memories.
One is particularly painful. Matthew Lause’, father of senior pitcher Max Lause’, remembers playing catch with his son – until his body couldn’t take the pounding.
“Two broken wrists, busted-up shins, three stitches above my left eye,” the elder Lause’ said. “That’s when I knew I couldn’t track him anymore. It was more like a target.”
Senior Evan Clark remembers April 11, 2012, his seventh birthday.
“I hit my first home run.,” Clark said. “It was the first pitch of the game, and I just remember everybody circling around home plate, jumping on top of me. Nobody got hurt.”
If you follow Campbell County basketball, you surely know what Hamilton did; in five seasons he scored a school-record 2,216 points (15.8 per game), but he said baseball always had his heart.
“Ever since I was little, it’s always been my first thing,”he said.
Clark said two of this year’s games are memorable – a 6-4 win over St. Henry March 20 because it’s the first victory over the Crusaders to start a season since 2018, and a 6-5 eight-inning triumph over Roosevelt (Wyandotte, Michigan) on March 29 on senior Luke Barbian’s walk-off sacrifice fly.
Through Saturday’s eight-inning 3-1 win at Louisville Ballard, Campbell County’s season statistics are strong – a .288 batting average and a 2.55 earned run average. Senior Jake Gross leads with a .364 average, junior catcher Parker Schweitzer (Scott’s son) is next at .357, and Hamilton is third at .355.
The left-handed-hitting Hamilton looks for a fastball middle of the plate in because he wants to pull the ball over the right field fence.
“(A fastball) has a backspin to it out of the pitcher’s hand,” said Hamilton, who has signed with the University of Kentucky. “Curveball, you look for topspin. Slider, you’re looking for that sideways rotation.”
Clark looks for a first-pitch strike.
“I’m a pretty aggressive hitter,” he said. “There’s been a couple games where I’ve had three or four at-bats and only seen three or four pitches.”
Campbell County has a busy week – road games at Cooper on Monday and Dixie Heights on Wednesday, Holy Cross and Newport Central Catholic in the Doc Morris Invitational on Thursday and Saturday, and a Friday home game against Greenup County.
Lause’ sounds confident regardless of whatever happens.
“As long as we play like we play, there shouldn’t be any pressure,” he said. “We’ve got a good group, and I’m pretty confident we can beat anybody when we play at our best.”