Alumni Stars Help Leps Get Ready for the Baseball Season in Annual Scrimmage
Tom Brady’s Super Bowl win wasn’t the only amazing age-defying sports feat of the weekend.
Rodney Kana, at age 52, pitched four innings of onerun baseball Saturday as the La Grange alumni baseball team battled the varsity before falling to the youngsters 5-3.
Kana is a regular in the annual game, and the lefty, appropriately wearing a jersey of another age-less hurler (Nolan Ryan) gave the Leps varsity good practice against a crafty left-hander.
“I’ll keep doing this as long as I can and as long as I can keep giving them a good look,” Kana said after the game.
The annual event serves not only to celebrate the storied history of Leps baseball (four state titles) but to also prep the current crop of Leps for the upcoming season.
Saturday’s scrimmage was the first of the year for a Leps team hungry to get back on the field after their season last year was prematurely halted in March because of the pandemic.
“It’s always good to be back out here and we just had the best week of practice since I’ve been here,” said La Grange head coach Robert Barber. “They are hungry.”
The varsity Leps’ bats took a while to get going Saturday. The only run they managed against Kana was when Cameron Kruse got an infield single and later scored on a throwing error.
One neat aspect of the alumni game is the family matchups it creates. In the third inning varsity senior Wyatt Wick pitched against his older brother Weston, who had been an all-state hurler for La Grange and later pitched at Blinn and Houston Baptist University.
The younger Wick won the battle, striking his brother out amidst a 1-2-3 inning. Another interesting family story line was Robert Barber is now coaching his freshman son Bennett, who played at second base for the varsity Saturday and pitched an inning.
“It’s something I’ve been waiting 14 years for,” Robert Barber said. “I played for my dad and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’m so happy but now I just wish time would slow down.”
In all, seven different varsity Leps (Kadyn Hall, Chase Knarvek, Wick, Cruse, Kaleb Pyle, Clay Wolff and Bennett Barber) each pitched one inning.
That depth will only improve once last year’s ace Trenton Barnes recovers from some arm issues, and Andrew Faske joins the team after basketball season.
Ryder Imhoff, Wolff, Cameron Kruse and Colby Spann are competing for time in the outfield this season for the Leps. Braeden Wilder has won the first base spot. Wick will start at shortstop when not pitching and Barnes will play third.
A lot of the other starting spots are still up in the air.
“We’ve got a long way to go, but overall I’m pleased so far,” Barber said.
The alumni tied Saturday’s game at 1-1 in the top of the fourth when Jeffrey Recek tripled and scored on a Jason Zbranek single.
With the game tied 1-1, the varsity broke things open in the bottom of the fifth with four runs.
After several more scrimmages, the Leps play their regular season opener Feb. 22 at Navasota.