'We will be a pretty dang good baseball team': Coach Johnson believes in Wildcats baseball
Getting back to a winning tradition can sometimes be hard.
For Pueblo Central’s baseball team, it's just a matter of time.
The team this year started strong, beating some top-ranked teams in the state but has since slipped into a slump.
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“You know, we started strong, we knocked off Golden and Lewis-Palmer, they're both ranked and then we kind of fell off,” head coach Devean Johnson said. “We are hoping to bounce back here in the second half.”
The league's season is already halfway through and the Wildcats are sitting with a 2-3 record in the South-Central League. They recently got back in the win column with a victory over Pueblo Centennial which Johnson hopes will spark the team to get back into their winning ways.
“We got one that we needed to get back in that win column and that was big and so it’s kind of important that we get back on the winning side,” Johnson said. “We need to get back to that tradition, back to where we were at the beginning of the year and everything else will take care of itself after that. We'll give it everything we can.”
Despite the up and down season, the one thing that Johnson is looking for from his team this year is to go out and give it their all each and every game.
“The biggest thing is to compete,” Johnson said. “We got to compete and we got to learn to compete as a team. Competing individually doesn't help us, so we need to compete as a team. Once we can successfully do that, we will be a pretty dang good baseball team, that's for sure.”
The players so far this year that have stood out for the Wildcats have been senior Zach Mehess and junior Colton Calderon.
“Zach is having a great year. He's playing well at shortstop for us, and he is swinging the bat well,” Johnson said. “Same as Colton Calderon, he is swinging the bat well. These guys are coming in clutch for us now, and that's their role on this team, and I am hoping everyone learns to follow.”
Mehess not only plays shortstop but also pitches for the Wildcats as well. He is 2-1 on the season with a 1.98 earned run average. He is also batting .385 with eight RBIs this season. Calderon has been stellar at third base for the team and is currently hitting .396 with eight RBIs.
The Wildcats are in fourth place in the S-CL with a 2-3 record and have an 11-6 record overall for the season.
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Christopher Abdelmalek is a sports reporter for the Pueblo Chieftain and can be reached at cabdelmalek@gannett.com or follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @chowebacca. Support local news, subscribe to The Pueblo Chieftain at subscribe.chieftain.com
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo Central looks to bring winning tradition back to baseball
