Game On - Summer 2024, is the preseason media guide for the baseball and softball teams at Gilbert Schools.
MEMBERS OF THE 2024 GILBERT BASEBALL TEAM include (front row, left to right) Tommy McGuire, Brayden Howard, Joey Pyfferoen, Jakoby Cesler, Cooper Mitchell, Taylor Dukes, (middle row) Darren Canuso, Hayden Russell, Blake Bell, Gabe Nelson, Seth Papesh, Micah Leyva, Ean Eldred, (back row) Josh Grouwinkel, Mylze Peterson, Alden Short, Matt Zoz, Trent Wesselmann, Chase Klatt, Tripp Sturgill, Isaac Renze, and Coal Myers.
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J eremy Eldred ponders the question — what are your expectations for the 2024 season? — for a moment, and then two. He begins to speak and stops to think some more. After another moment he starts to provide his thoughtful answer. “The expectations are to build on what we started last year,”
Eldred, the veteran skipper of the Gilbert baseball program, said. “We realize that we’re going to be a younger team this year, but these guys know the process and how it works. We may take our lumps early, but it’s not how we start the season. It’s how we finish it.” Eldred, who guided the Tigers to the Class 2A state champion-
ship game in 2020, is quite fa- miliar with building toward something. Last summer imme- diately comes to his mind, and he grins for just a moment when he thinks back to 11 months ago. In 2023, Gilbert didn’t exactly storm out of the gate blazing. Following a season-opening win over Roland-Story, the Tigers
dropped five of their next six games as they methodically learned what it takes to be suc- cessful. Eventually, by the time July rolled around, they had more than found their footing. Gilbert finished the 2023 regu- lar season with six consecutive wins, highlighted by a thrilling 6- 5 victory over eventual Class 4A state runner-up Ames, and then
Returning letter winners (left to right): Tommy McGuire, Coal Myers, Alden Short, Josh Grouwinkel, Ean Eldred, Blake Bell, and Brayden Howard.
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continued to pour it on in the postseason. It went on the road for back-to-back 3A substate games and outscored North Central Conference opponents Humboldt and Algona 27-6 to reach the substate final round. Only a loss to Raccoon River Conference rival North Polk, 7- 1, kept the Tigers out of the state tournament. North Polk, which claimed the league crown, went on to finish as the 3A state runner-up.
That is a blueprint Eldred would be more than happy to follow again this summer. Gilbert — 18-13 overall a summer ago — returns six players with ample varsity ex- perience. That’s not to say there aren’t big gaps to fill though, as the Tigers said goodbye to a relatively small but talented senior class in 2023. Brock Christensen, Kaden Malloy, and Alec Bell all hit be-
tween .300 and .329 and com- bined to drive in 34 runs in their final tours of the diamond. And then you get to Eli Eldred, the son of the Tigers’ head coach, who is currently putting together a strong freshman season at Southwest Community College in Creston. Eli Eldred was Mr. Everything for the Tigers a sea- son ago, hitting at a .348 clip with two home runs, 23 RBIs, and 12 more extra-base hits. He was also the ace on the mound with a 5-3 record and
2.27 ERA. So, yeah, those are Shaq- sized shoes to fill. “We are going to miss those guys a lot,” Jeremy Eldred said of his 2023 graduates. “Alec was just steady eddy, you knew night in and night out what you were going to get. Brock, he brought that speed intangible that is tough to replace. With Eli, that’s a difficult one, be- cause he was the motor that drove the team in every aspect of it. As he went, we went.” You don’t replace an Eli El- dred, that’s for sure, not with one individual anyway. Instead, Gilbert will look to collectively try to fill in those gaps this summer. It won’t be one player. It might not even be two. But as a group, it’s not impossible. “It’s going to have to be by committee this year,” Jeremy Eldred said. “Nobody can try to put that on their shoulders and go. It’s got to be the whole team.” That’s where experienced guys like Coal Myers, Alden Short, Tommy McGuire, Ean El- dred, Josh Grouwinkel, and Blake Bell enter the picture. All of them will need to take on bigger roles in 2024. It starts with Myers, a multi- ple-year starter who Eldred says has transformed himself into a good leader for his young ball club. Myers hit at a .310 clip
Left to right: Coal Myers, Tommy McGuire, Tripp Sturgill, and Josh Grouwinkel.
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with 15 RBIs a season ago, and the right-hander is also an ex- perienced arm on the bump. He posted a 3-3 record with a 2.65 ERA in 39 2 ⁄ 3 innings last summer. He also collected 32 strikeouts. “Coal Myers has really stepped up in our program,” Jeremy Eldred said. “He is tak- ing on a lot of that leadership role and it’s been a very posi- tive thing. That young man has grown in so many aspects of life and it’s amazing to be able to see that. He has done a great job of getting with the younger guys and working with them, trying to bring them along and up to speed as fast as pos- sible.” Myers and McGuire will be options 1A and 1B on the mound for the Tigers. McGuire, a junior southpaw, isn’t overly big, but that doesn’t mean he can’t bring it. He worked 37 2 ⁄ 3 in- nings a season ago and fin- ished with a salty 1.67 ERA and 31 strikeouts. “Tommy pitched in a lot of big games last year that weren’t al- ways successful, but he kept us in every single game,” Jeremy Eldred said of McGuire, who was 2-3 in 2023. “The kid just doesn’t quit on the mound. I’ve never seen so many different motions out of a kid and it’s fun to watch.” McGuire also hit .242 with 16 RBIs out of the lead-off spot last summer. Short completed his
dred knows it will take some of the newcomers time to get ac- climated to varsity baseball, which is why he’s willing to ac- cept some early hiccups. And it’s not like Gilbert’s schedule is easy. Far from it. Take out the difficulty of the conference slate for a moment and just look at the non-confer- ence contests. Ankeny Centennial. Van Meter. Norwalk. Pella. Knoxville. Dallas Center-Grimes. And on and on it goes. “Playing a team like Centen- nial at the beginning of the sea- son, sometimes it’s a wake-up call,” Jeremy Eldred said. “Some years we’ve gone and competed with them very well, but it’s always a constant. We can’t ever take a night off.” The same could be said for league play, which will once again be difficult, to say the least. “You can’t blink in our confer- ence,” Jeremy Eldred said. “It’s absolutely loaded.” Carlisle and Ballard both joined North Polk in the eight-
sophomore season with a .253 batting average, while Ean El- dred hit .238. “Alden and Tommy are two juniors that are going to be big pieces to this puzzle,” Jeremy Eldred said. “Ean is going to take on a bigger role too. He
had a good football season and that’s a big motivator for him to be able to step up and continue to keep that going.” From there, playing time is up for grabs with a number of un- derclassmen hungry to find their places on the field. Coach El-
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team 3A state field a season ago, and Carlisle also made the state semifinals. Eldred expects all three to be very good again, and he won’t overlook a team like ADM either. “The number one team is going to be North Polk,” he said. “After that, Ballard is going to be good and they return a bunch as well. And I know people will say Carlisle lost a lot, but I don’t care. They’re al- ways scrappy and so compet- itive.” North Polk returns three of the league’s top arms in Hunter Cook, Reece Wrage, and Ethan
Sanger, who combined to put together a 20-3 record a season ago. Bondurant-Farrar’s Will Pottebaum (5-0, 0.72 ERA in 2023) will keep the Bluejays in games he pitches, and ADM’s Grant Jansen (5-1, 1.31 ERA) has plenty of talent as well. Boone finished in the lower- third of the conference a sea- son ago, but returns a pair of offensive stars in Noah Davis and Lucas Moore. Davis hit .409 with a league-best 35 RBIs as a freshman a summer ago. Moore belted four home runs and plated 30 more runs. In other words, don’t sleep on
the Toreadors either. Where Gilbert fits into that picture, Jer- emy Eldred doesn’t quite know at the moment. And so he and his players will continue to plug away with the goal of playing their best baseball in July. Hey, it worked out quite well last year. “This is a team that
WANT MORE INFORMATION ON THE GILBERT BASEBALL TEAM? Use the QR Code to go to the team site on Bound. Results will be updated throughout the season.
will be ready to go right where we always are at the end of the year,” he said.
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NOTE Gilbert baseball team member David Dunn, a senior, is not pictured.
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MEMBERS OF THE 2024 GILBERT SOFTBALL TEAM include (front row, left to right) Katie Sniezek, Maddy Shannon, Lily Shedarowich, Zoey Jones, Gwen Pistilli, Tovaria Smith, Raegan Murphy, (middle row) Ally Nelson, Delaney Eick- ert, Sammy Johnson, Greta Platts, Emily Roche, Evie Christenson, Jazzy Gehling, Allie Grandgenett, London Hibbing, (back row) Adalyn Gauck, Caylee Kincade, Avery Wilson, Alex Powers, Cece Hart, Clara Newton, Emma Latterell, Olivia Latterell, Taylor Puck, and Lauren Sniezek.
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F our words, that’s all it take on a bit of fire, and her smile grows even wider. Raccoon. River. Conference. Softball. Sniezek, who is about to begin her sixth year in charge of the Gilbert program and her 20th season overall as a head coach, loves to talk about the league’s prowess, both in re- cent years and over the long haul. It’s the toughest non- Class 5A conference in the takes for Staci Sniezek to sit up in her chair a little straighter. Her kind eyes state, year after year after year, and you could even argue it’s as rigorous as the state’s largest leagues. Carlisle. Winterset. North Polk. ADM. Boone. They’re all state heavyweights seemingly every year. Other teams have historic pedigrees as well. And just think about this: Over the last three seasons, the RRC has accounted for 50 percent (12 of 24) of the 4A state qual- ifiers. The league sent four teams to state a season ago, five in 2021, and has boasted four state champions and three state runners-up in just the past six seasons. Marinate on those facts for a moment. They’re incredibly im- pressive. “If you want a measuring stick, you get it every single
Left to right: Zoey Jones, Evie Christenson, Lauren Sniezek, Adalyn Gauck, Delaney Eickert, Taylor Puck, Tovaria Smith, Greta Platts, Sammy Johnson, Emma Latterell, Olivia Latterell, Clara Newton, Cece Hart, Katie Sniezek, and Maddy Shannon.
night in this conference,” Snie- zek said. “There’s a great tradi- tion of programs and you get to say you’re playing against the best every single night. And every night, you have to bring your best.” In all, RRC schools have com- bined for 81 state tournament appearances and have gener- ated 15 state championships (the numbers increase to 89 trips and 16 titles if you include Adel before it combined to be- come ADM), with Carlisle and Winterset sharing the lead at five each. Four of Winterset’s crowns have come in the last decade, including a title in 2020
and back-to-back champion- ships in 2022 and 2023. North Polk (three) and Bondu- rant-Farrar (one) have both sat atop the state as well. Ballard has a state title too, which came in the summer of 2012. And who was the coach that led the Bombers to the top of the mountain? That would be none other than Staci Sniezek. Aah, now do you see where we’re going here? Sniezek knew exactly what Gilbert was stepping into when
SUMMER 2024 | GAME ON 19 2019, it was comfortable talking about it because you have to start thinking about it if you’re going to accomplish it,” Sniezek said. “Every year we’ve been together, we’ve taken another step toward that becoming a re- it joined the RRC back in 2020. The Tigers are the only confer- ence school to never reach the state softball tournament, and while that can be a daunting fact, Sniezek and her players use it as motivation daily. The group that breaks through — and it will happen — will be remembered forever. “When I first took over in
Seniors (left to right): Adalyn Gauck, Dela- ney Eickert, Taylor Puck, and Maddy Shannon.
ality. At first, it’s a motivation tool to learn how to be com- mitted, but then as you reach a regional final, then all of a sud- den you can almost taste it. “To go where no (Gilbert team) has gone before, that would be super cool.”
The Tigers have made strides in each of their three seasons in the league, that’s backed up by the numbers. After winning four league games in 2021 and 2022, Sniezek’s club increased that total to six wins in 2023, in- cluding a program-defining 7-6 win over eventual state cham- pion Winterset. The Tigers
reached the 4A regional final round and pushed North Polk to the brink before eventually fall- ing, 10-5. “Last year, there only two teams in the conference we did- n’t beat and that was Carlisle and North Polk,” Sniezek said. “You have to start with mini-
goals and break it into smaller chunks. But you can dream big, you can take that risk. As pain- ful as it might be when it’s over, at least you pushed yourself.” Gilbert’s year-by-year im- provement might not be glar- ingly noticeable when you look at the conference standings.
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However, look at the Tigers’ out of conference résumé. Over the last three seasons, they’ve compiled a 31-12 mark against non-RRC teams. Those are numbers of a pro- gram that is on the rise. There’s no doubt about that. And Sniezek is optimistic that trend will continue in 2024. Gilbert returns 16 players off its 19-player roster from 2023, led by sophomore infielder Katie Sniezek, the daughter of the Tigers’ head coach. A ver- satile talent offensively and de- fensively, Katie Sniezek hit at a .389 clip with 17 RBIs and seven doubles a season ago en route to all-conference, all-dis- trict, and all-state accolades. Clara Newton. Tovaria Smith. Zoey Jones. Emma Latterell. Maddy Shannon. Taylor Puck. Adalyn Gauck. Those are all fa- miliar names in the lineup that will have an impact again. Newton raked at a .377 clip and cranked a pair of home runs to go along with 11 RBIs and seven doubles in 2023. Smith hit .325 and went yard once a season ago. Jones and Latterell both finished with bat- ting averages north of .300 last summer, and Shannon hovered around that line all season to go along with a pair of dingers. Puck, who bashed a team- best five home runs a season ago, could be the wild card.
Medically cleared only recently after she suffered an ACL tear during volleyball season, the senior will quickly work to get back into the swing of things, and her production at the plate will be a signficant key through- out the season. Throw in another senior ca- pable of putting up big offensive numbers in Delaney Eickert (one home run, 11 RBIs in 2023), along with the leadership provided by Gauck, and you un- derstand why Sniezek is excited about this season’s possibilities. “On paper, it looks like we can pick up right where we left off in
that regional final,” Sniezek said. “The fantastic thing is we have an experienced senior class and they’ve been really good leaders for two years.” Newton will take over as the team’s No. 1 pitcher in the cir- cle, and the sophomore is ready to tackle that challenge and the ferocious opposing offenses on the Tigers’ schedule. Newton compiled a 4-3 record with a 3.47 ERA in 36 1 ⁄ 3 innings of work a season ago. Smith is also more than capable of gobbling up innings; she went 3-3 last summer. “(Newton) is ready to take that
SUMMER 2024 | GAME ON 21 nents will likely tread lightly around her daughter, but she thinks Gilbert has more than enough depth to compensate. “They’re going to pitch (Katie) tough, so she’s going to need to be headstrong and lean on her teammates,” Sniezek said. “The summer, and lead-off hitter Car- lee Schwartze was a tough out with a .438 batting average, two home runs, and 18 RBIs. Schwartze left Gilbert to attend Culver Academies in Culver, In- diana, where she plays hockey. “With this group, it’s going to be a matter of finding that lead- off hitter because Carlee was so good in that role,” Sniezek said. “But I feel really good about what we have one through nine, and even one through 12. We have girls that can all make good contact, they’re versatile, they can hit for power, and they can hit for average.” The head coach knows oppo- next step and she’s embraced it,” Sniezek said. “Clara is going to bring the heat. She’s going to throw hard and she’s worked to add a couple of pitches this summer, so we’re expecting really good things from her.” There are some holes Gilbert must plug this season from the group that averaged nearly six runs per game and outscored its opponents by 27 runs in 2023. Addison Hodgen, a 2023 graduate, won a team-high 11 games in the circle last
Left to right: Tovaria Smith, Clara Newton, CeCe Hart, and Alex Powers.
good thing is we have so many kids that could have earned the same (postseason) honors as Katie last year. She has the support around her and we all know that.” Where Gilbert stacks up against the RRC heavyweights is still unknown. Sure, Winterset lost some big pieces from its state championship team, but the best programs always seem to reload rather than rebuild. Statistically, seven of the top 10 hitters for average in the conference return. The RBI leader is back, and on and on it
goes offensively. And in the cir- cle, North Polk, Carlisle, Winter- set, Bondurant-Farrar, ADM, Ballard, Carroll, and Boone all return the aces of their pitching staffs. Like we said ... reload, not re- build. That’s the yearly theme. “Winterset, Carlisle and North Polk are all going to be really good again, and it starts with their pitching,” Sniezek said. Gilbert will continue to try to simply chip away. The Tigers will try to take that next step. They’ll attempt to move one or
even a few rungs higher on that con- ference hierarchy. And they’ll continue to eye the big leap into the state tourna- ment. Will it happen this season? Sniezek isn’t into making pre- dictions, but she likes her team. She likes the chemistry between the players. She likes the belief she sees in their eyes.
WANT MORE INFORMATION ON THE GILBERT SOFTBALL TEAM? Use the QR Code to go to the team site on Bound. Results will be updated throughout the season.
It should be a fun summer for the players and the coach.
Catchers (left to right): Greta Platts, Katie Sniezek, Maddy Shannon, Olivia Latterell, and Raegan Murphy.
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