The Warrenton baseball team is looking for its ace after coming within a game of winning the district championship last season.

The Warriors rode all-state pitcher Ben Stephens to a 14-12 record, but lost to St. Charles West in the Class 4, District  7 title game, 7-2.

“He was just out of gas,” Warrenton Head Coach Eric Burle said. “High school ball is all about getting a couple of good pitchers, and we’ll need that this season.”

Burle said the offense and defense will have to carry the load while the coaching staff figures out how the starting rotation will play out.

The Warriors return seven starters off last year’s team.

Senior Dallas Johnson led the team with a .438 batting average last spring, and returns along with seniors Hunter Capstick (.352), Hunter Russell (.327), Sawyer Junker (.321) and Brandon Purkaple (.311), who all hit over .300 last season.

“I think our offense is going to have to carry us early on,” Burle said. “And our defense will have to be sharp because we’ll have pitchers pitching to contact. The last five years we’ve had Stephens or Brandon Moeller, who consistently struck guys out. That might not be the case this season.”

Warrenton opens the season Friday at Liberty at 4:30 p.m. in the St. Charles West round robin tournament.

Burle said it will be a good preview for the Gateway Athletic Conference North season, which begins March 29 at St. Charles West.

“Liberty might be one of the teams to beat,” he said. “Because they bring back everybody.”

Warrenton and St. Charles West shared the conference title last year, and Burle expects West to remain close to the top of the standings this season as well, although he wouldn’t be surprised by any outcome.

“The only school who really lost a lot of guys is St. Charles, but they are always a tough program,” he said.

Going into his eighth season at Warrenton, Burle said he focuses more on the district tournament and less on the conference race.

The Warriors have advanced to the district semifinals or finals each of the last three years, but Burle is looking for his first championship.

“We want to be playing our best ball come district time,” he said. “If we can win a conference title along the way, that would be great. And if you win a district title, you probably won a conference title, as well.”

Along with Stephens, who led the team with 75 1/3 innings pitched, Warrenton also lost Taylor Duvel, who was second on the roster with 29 1/3 innings of work.

Junior Dalton Owenby returns the most experience, throwing 21 innings with a 5.00 earned-run average last season.

Other notable returners include Russell (10 innings pitched), Purkaple (8 1/3) and Capstick (6 2/3).

“Losing an all-state pitcher like Stephens is going to hurt a little bit because he saw the bulk of the innings the last two or three years,” Burle said. “We haven’t had to question who would be our ace for the last five years, but it will be good for the future.”

Return seven starters from last yearThe 2016 Wright City baseball team. Front row, from left, Alec Lamparter, Clayton Sharp, Koltin Goldsmith, Chase Jones, Jacob Meneau, Tanner Riley and Patrick Norwood. Back row, from left, Justin Bote, Michael Holmes, Tyler Brittain, Kyle Tuepker, Troy Muse, Donovan Mozee, Andrew Pfuhl and Jacob Diveley. Kory Carpenter photo.