Highland Post 439 Legion team battles through growing pains in 2022 season

A new manager, several new players, and a lack of experience produced a challenging 2022 season that was full of learning and growing for Highland Post 439’s Legion baseball team.

It was uncharted territory for first-year Highland manager Todd Kunz as Post 439 struggled through a 6-14 campaign this summer.

The biggest challenges Highland faced early were trying to get players set in their best positions on the field and filling spots defensively.

“Well, defensively, we had a lot of errors and just having players getting to know each other put extra stress on them. And there were a lot of errors being made as guys were playing positions that they weren’t super comfortable with,” Kunz said.

Another hole Post 439 had to try to fill early was not having a regular, experienced catcher behind the plate.

“We didn’t have a catcher that was catching regularly and we had some kids that had caught a little bit before. And we had to figure out that role, so that was a big one (hole) to fill,” Kunz said.

Add to that having just three experienced players on the roster and Post 439 had their work cut out for them at the season’s outset.

Highland lost three of its first four games to open but a 6-5 walk-off win over Steelville Post 480 on June 17 helped catapult Post 439 to three wins in their next four games.

“It seemed like we started to clean up the defense somewhat and a big part of that was kids getting comfortable in the positions they were starting to play. And we started to figure out how we wanted the team to play defensively and then you’re starting to figure out (your) starting pitching and how that’s going to work for you,” Kunz said.

Reid Koishor stepped in at catcher during the middle of the season and helped the Highland pitchers settle in as well.

“Reid Koishor came in and kind of took to it (catching) and pretty quickly started doing a really good job catching,” Kunz said.

Adam Overby also helped out behind the plate.

Offensively, Tyson Kunz (.358), Joey Kunz (.346), and Ryan Heath from Greenville University (.321) provided the big bats at the plate.

In the pitching department, Mason Barnes, Tyson Kunz, and Chad Barker carried the load and gave Kunz plenty of quality innings.

Post 439 closed the regular season with three wins in their final four games including a satisfying 9-2 victory over Troy Post 778 on July 15.

Alton ends Post 439’s campaign

Highland, in turn, headed into the District 22 championship series looking primed to have some success.

However, Alton Post 126 — which had beaten Highland twice in the regular season — was a little too much again for Post 439. Alton swept host Highland 9-0 and 11-0 in a doubleheader July 20 at Glik Park to claim the District 22 championship series and end Post 439’s season.

“We felt like the team was coming together. We knew Alton was a solid team and knew we were gonna have some trouble with them in the playoffs,” Todd Kunz said. “We were in there for the first four innings of the game (one) with Mason Barnes on the mound doing a really good job at that time. Then he had the one bad inning and, basically, the day in and of itself kind of fell apart.”

Future appears bright

Although the season ended in an inglorious fashion, Kunz believes Post 439’s future is promising. Highland loses only three players from this year’s club and will have mainstays such as Tyson Kunz, Tommy Kunz, Joey Kunz, Owen Holzinger, and Eric Potthast back in the fold.

“It may take a couple of years to get there but I think it’s definitely feasible,” the Highland manager said of the team’s future. “I’ve coached a younger group the past couple of years and I hope to get them involved and, supposedly, Troy is going to fold. So if that happens, hopefully, we can get some of their people too.”

This story was originally published July 25, 2022 at 1:01 AM.