VYPE's Preseason Baseball Top 20 -- No. 3 Klein BearKats

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The Klein BearKats

Pesky Kats Back to Winning Ways           

State Runner-Ups

By Austin Staton

Cutline: Blake Rhodes and Andrew Santacroce and Johnathon Tripp

Klein head coach Barry Smith has built his BearKats into one of the premier high school baseball programs in the Greater Houston area. However, after another berth in the Class 5A tournament in Round Rock last season, the BearKats are looking to finish the job.

“We need to rebuild team chemistry because that is what got us so far last year,” said senior Johnathon Tripp. “We weren’t the best or most athletic team last season but it was the chemistry that led us to the state tournament.”

Although Klein will be replacing a few talented seniors, there are still plenty of high-quality players in the lineup. Junior Andrew Santacroce, combined with seniors Blake Rhodes and Tripp, compose a talented trio and a solid backbone for the BearKats.

For Klein, it is the consistent development of the aforementioned team chemistry and their recent success that has given the team a plethora of confidence heading into the 2012 campaign.

“The deep playoff run last year gave us a lot of confidence heading into this year,” said Santacroce.

Tripp added, “We now know what it takes to win and what we the team needs to do to take that next step to bring home a championship.”

In a competitive district that features Klein Collins, Spring, Tomball and Klein Oak, Klein will be thrown into the gauntlet during district play which will ultimately pay dividends as the team prepares to make a return trip to the Dell Diamond.

“District 13-5A is the SEC of high school baseball because every team is capable and every game you have an opportunity to prove something,” said Santacroce. “Our juniors will be pretty good this season and we have a lot of great senior leadership, which is what carried us in the playoffs last season. I think our pitching staff and our lineup should be pretty good.”

“We’ve worked really hard in the offseason just to prepare for the spring,” said Rhodes. “As a pitcher, I think the new bat standards will help our team both offensively and on the mound.”

Throughout the offseason, Klein has focused on improving their game in terms of speed, bunting and hit-and-run situations with hopes of bringing a different dynamic to the talented baseball club.

“We just to need to keep working hard and not do anything out of the ordinary while we keep playing Klein baseball,” says Santacroce.