The Cottonwood baseball team is loaded. Coach Jon Hoover holds the all-time record for wins in Utah. Tanner Robles is back with his MVP trophy in hand, and six players return from last year's 5A state championship team. It is the Colts' year to take home the Region 6 championship.
"I think we can have a pretty good year," Hoover said. "We return a lot of experience in the field, but we really only have two pitchers coming back that have varsity time. We will put a lot of different people on the mound and see who can throw some strikes."
It helps that one of the two pitchers coming back is Robles. As a sophomore all he did was hit .500, went 7-0 with a 1.29 earned run average and was the most valuable player in 5A as he helped lead Cottonwood to the title.
"He is throwing well. He is the same old Tanner," said Hoover of his star. "The good thing about him is he just loves to compete. He is a lefthander and has good velocity. He has developed a good change-up and curve ball. Whenever he needs a pitch he just seems to come up with it. His fastball also has some movement on it. You throw all those things into the mix, and he is tough to hit."
Besides Robles, the Colts have some serious talent returning. Casey Sato, Cliff Andersen, Easton Gust, Danny Payne and Rem Wilson all started and played big roles in the Colts' title run. With another year of experience under their belts, this group will be awfully tough to knock off.
Here's a look at the rest of the teams with the predicted finish by the Region 6 coaches:
WEST: With new coach Bill Groves, the Panthers hope to come together and play good baseball. Groves has experience at nearly every amateur level of baseball. After beginning in
high school, he has coached both as an assistant and as the head coach at various colleges around the state for the past 20 years. He takes over a West program that struggled last year but has the talent to complete.
"We should improve on last year's record," he said. "We have several players that had varsity experience. The team has the potential to compete in the region, but we are unproven. We have to pick up the overall team play."
West will rely on its proven players in Bryce Howard (.302 BA, 1.88 ERA), Tyson Kisselburg (1.32 ERA), Jordan Pierce (15 RBIs) and Sam Raymond.
OLYMPUS: Chad Mears has seen it all. From his catchers position, he is starting for the fourth year. He hit .415 last year and was a productive RBI man. He is like an extension of coach David Wiseman out on the diamond, something that could give the Titans an edge in dealing with some unproven pitchers."
"We are a young team with a young pitching staff," Wiseman said. "We should be strong up the middle, but we have some work to do."
Brandon Glenn, Jacob Stansfield and Jeff Glauser man the middle positions and should be the strength of the team. If the pitchers can find the plate, Olympus could find a playoff spot out of this region.
MURRAY: The Spartans have struggled out of the gate. A perennial contender, Murray appears to have let some tough losses get into its head. The team has blown a late lead in three games and don't seem to have the experience or know-how on how to finish out games.
Coach Derrick Hathaway should be able to turn the team around, but if the Spartans are going to make the state tournament, some things are going to need to be remedied.
CYPRUS: Coach Bob Fratto is in his 18th season and has enough experience evaluating his teams.
"We have only two returning letterman in the senior class who played a lot last year, so we will have a learning curve," he said. "We have a very young pitching staff, but they are talented. We hope to get better as the year progresses and hope to qualify for state."
With six seniors, the Pirates should mature quickly. Jake Pitts, Pete Mirabile, Chris Bond, Kennan Duff, Miki Oshiro and Nick Rickards provide the team with leadership and a good core to help the team mature quickly.
EAST: The Leopards showed some promise last season and have a good group of returning players. Mitch Curtis, Sam Baldwin, Matt Hansel, Joey Wood, Adam Webb, Colin Fogit and Tom Busico are expected to be the team leaders of a group that has some high expectations.
"We have a good group of players, and I think we should finish in the top two in the region," said coach Terry Harward.
Eric Bohling and Luke Busico have both shown some potential on the mound, and if the rest of the staff can throw strikes, the defense can pick up the rest.
HIGHLAND: Every coach claims it, but the Rams actually have the burden of being a very young team. With four seniors, and only two of them with varsity experience, it will be a question of consistency for Highland.
"We are going to be a very young team that will have to have people step up," said coach Dan Shwam. I think that as we gain experience we should improve as the season goes along."
Matt VanWagoner is a proven commodity at shortstop, and Zac Burgess is a valuable third baseman and pitcher. Dan Minch has shown promise on the mound and at the plate, but others are going to have to fill some roles if Highland is to make the playoffs.
GRANGER: The Lancers are looking for respect. After winning only two games in each of the past two seasons, Granger has a much better team than those records and could not only push for the playoffs but could play spoiler to a couple as well.
"We should be experienced and much improved," said third-year coach Garrett Clark. "The kids here really seem to have bought in to what we are doing and have worked really hard."
The team has plenty of players that should step up this year. Nick Crabb, Eddie Stinnett, Sam Lynch, Casey Solomon, Brendyn Scott, Jace Garner and Marcos Barela are poised for a better season.
E-mail: mblack@desnews.com