If not the, they’re one of the most accomplished baseball teams from Northern Kentucky over the past decade.
Simon Kenton has made two runs to the state championship game over that span in 2014 and ’17 and if the early part of the season in 2024 is any indicator, the Pioneers are on a trajectory towards that path once again.
They own a 12-1 record to start the season, have already knocked off 2023 state runner-up Shelby County and own a 4-0 record in 8th Region play with some other impressive wins against some top tier 9th Region competition.
Coach Troy Roberts is in his 12th season with the team and sees a lot of similarities in this team and the one’s who made deep runs in ’14 and ’17.
“Unselfishness. All three of these teams, the two past and this one, just unselfish,” Roberts said. “They genuinely don’t care about their own success, they care about the team success and that’s awesome to see. Just a tight knit group and a lot of common personalities.”
Despite the early season success, the team off to their best start in Roberts stead, they aren’t gaudy with their numbers. At the plate, they don’t rank in the top 50 in the state in any of the batting average, home runs, doubles, triples, hits, slugging percentage or stolen bases categories.
But what they do is bring a patient approach to the plate, evidenced by an even ratio of strikeouts to walks. They’ve struck out 75 times in 13 games, walked 75 times in 13 games. With that patience means baserunners and making contact where they use their speed to cause some damage, successful on 33 of 34 stolen base attempts.
“We’re doing enough to get it done,” Roberts said. “We’d like to see more consistency 1-9 in the lineup, but some guys get hot, cool off and then others pick it up. Prior years we’ve started off hot at the plate and then cooled off as the season went along, we’re hoping it’s the opposite this year.”
The lineup starts with Evan Sheridan, the leadoff hitter finding a way to reach the basepaths in a variety of ways. One of the ways has been rather by an anomaly, drawing 10 hit by pitches.
“I can’t describe it. We all talk about it now,” Sheridan said. “Now we joke I need to get hit once a game. It’s really weird because I don’t stand on top of the plate or lean into pitches.”
Add that with 11 hits and 10 walks, Sheridan has reached base 31 times in 51 at-bats. When Sheridan gets on, good things usually happen as he’s stolen 11 bases in 12 attempts and scored a team-high 23 runs, near tops in the state.
“The main goal is to get on base, I’ve got good bats behind me and I have a lot of speed,” Sheridan said. “The approach is it has to be my pitch, make the pitcher work and see how he’s throwing and how he’s working. Just want to help the team out and set the middle of the lineup for success.”
Following behind Sheridan is Jacob Piper and Bailey Rump, Piper hitting a team-high .432 with 11 RBI and six doubles while Rump hits .368 with 12 RBI. Jake Bockmon and Daniel Uhl round out five hitters with at least 10 hits on the season to date. Caleb Uhl and Ian Lawrence also sport batting averages at or over .300 while Tyler Ruete has the team’s two home runs on the season.
The Pioneers can thank their pitching staff a lot for where they are. They’ve allowed just 30 earned runs in the 13 games and sport a 2.50 earned run average as a team. They pound the strike zone with just 37 walks in 84 innings pitched and pitch to contact with full trust in the defense behind them. Roberts says that’s been the formula for the early season success.
“Pitching and defense. Getting extremely good pitching and defense with clean games,” Roberts said. “If we do commit an error, it doesn’t hurt us.”
Logan Cones is the ace of the staff and sits at 4-0 with a 0.67 ERA in 21 innings pitched. He’s allowed 14 hits and 11 walks while striking out 22 with just two earned runs allowed.
“With being the No. 1 I just try to lead the way and set a good example of what should be done,” Cones said. “I try to keep as much stress off my teammates shoulders as much as I can. I have trust in my defense and let them do the work knowing they have my back. Just really trying to hit my sports and execute my pitches and then let my defense do the work.”
From there Anthony Procaccino and Caleb Uhl have combined to log 30.1 innings on the bump. Procaccino sports a 0.91 ERA, Uhl at 2.80. They’ve combined to strike out 23 while walking just nine.
Despite the numbers one way or another, experience helps. The Pioneers have 10 seniors on the roster and Roberts knew this team had potential when the group of seniors now were sophomores.
“They’ve bought in and they come to work for us,” Roberts said. “Sounds cliche, but when they are dialed in, they are ready to go. We put them in tough situations on purpose and they respond. We had three of the seniors starting as sophomores and the JV group, we knew they had potential to be special.”
With a strong start the Pioneers are hoping to get back to Lexington in June for the state tournament. They’re scheduled to return to the diamond on Friday night at Bishop Brossart at 5:30 p.m. They’ll face another 8th Region test on Saturday at Collins at 11 a.m.