By Jeff Odom
The Wharton baseball team’s road back to the playoffs can be summed up in one word — unprecedented.
The Wildcats (12-14) entered the Class 8A-District 7 tournament as the sixth and last seed and winless in league play during the regular season. All signs pointed to a quick exit for the defending 8A-7 champs.
Reality told a very different story.
Wharton upset No. 3 Newsome 4-3 in the quarterfinals. The Wildcats toppled No. 2 Alonso in the semifinals 4-2 to clinch a postseason berth before falling to top seed and tournament host Durant in the championship game 5-1 April 25.
“It’s always great to prove people wrong, which we have definitely done by moving out of our district, and it feels good,” said senior shortstop Tucker Neuhaus. “I don’t think any of us are surprised. The whole season we knew what we are capable of, and we really pulled together and made stuff happen.”
The bulk of last year’s playoff success came from graduated pitchers Collin Woody, who was The Laker/Lutz News Baseball Player of the Year in 2012, and Harvard University signee Shaun Rubin. The duo combined for more than 159 innings of work, 15 wins and a 1.34 ERA.
In their place, senior starters Collin Britch (1-3, 2.73 ERA) and Mike Gonzalez (2-6, 3.10 ERA), along with sophomore reliever Cooper Borden (0-2, 2.84 ERA), have filled the void by eating up 111.5 of the team’s 153.1 innings this season.
Neuhaus returned to Wharton’s lineup after missing more than a month with an injury, but it wasn’t baseball that the University of Louisville-bound senior was focused on this season.
His 19-year-old brother, and former Wharton and Steinbrenner catcher Ty, was killed in a car accident last November. It left Neuhaus shattered as he wondered how to cope with the loss of his best friend.
Neuhaus decided to keep playing and dedicated the season to his brother’s memory by changing his number to 19, the same as Ty.
“I told my dad (before the season) that there’s going to be two Neuhaus boys in this jersey this year,” Neuhaus said. “I am getting up every morning, coming out here to play the game for God and for Ty, because this was his dream too, and his dream was the same. Now, it’s not just for me, but it’s for both of us.
“Things this spring have definitely been some hard times with losing him and the injuries, but I know Ty would want me to keep moving and pushing forward just like he always did,” he added, “I hold on to that and try to do what I know he is proud of.”
The Wildcats travel to East Lake for the regional quarterfinals May 1 at 7 p.m.
