By Patrick MacCoonRecord Sports EditorJust a month passed since a memorable 21-win season came to an end, the Wright City baseball team had four individuals garner statewide acknowledgement for their achievements this year.The Missouri High School Baseball Coaches Association selected Chase Jones, Kyle Tuepker, Donovan Mozee and Tyler Brittain to the Class 3 All-State team this past week.Jones was recognized as a first team catcher and Tuepker made second team for designated hitter/utility while Mozee and Brittain claimed honorable mentions at designated hitter and the outfield positions, respectively.“This is a tremendous honor for our program to have these players recognized by the other coaches throughout the state,” Wright City Head Coach Shannon Wells said. “I believe it will help our program locally in getting more students interested in playing baseball for the community.”All four junior standouts for the Wildcats had their place amongst the leaderboards as Tuepker (.455 AVG) and Jones (.440) ranked 29th and 41st in the St. Louis area in batting average. Brittain finished ninth in the stolen base department (28) and Mozee tied for fourth with six home runs.“I’ve wanted to be an all-state athlete since I was a little kid, and now that I am it’s kind of unreal,” Tyler Brittain said. “To know that we all will be playing again nextyear is awesome. It’s crazy to think we have this many kids on our team performing at such a high level.”Mozee always was excited about the recognition, but knows there are several other things he places first before his individual accomplishments.“It means a lot, but right now we have to still play baseball and get out of high school,” Donovan Mozee said. “We want to win a lot of games and I can’t do that by myself. We may have our best year yet to come.”As a coach, Wells realized how unique it was to have a roster comprised of such talent, but also realized the success generated far beyond just the four of them.“Teams like this do not come around often as people would think and it is a privilege to work with such talented individuals,” Wells said. “It was a great honor to have the four athletes make the all-state team, but they would not have been able to do that had it not been for the other members of the team as well.”While Wright City fell short in the district title game this past month, they are excited about what their core of players can accomplish this offseason to help them win even more games next season.“This is something that we all put a lot of hard work into, but we have bigger and greater goals for next season,” Brittain said. “We want to win more games and getting an honorable mention motivates me to be named to the first or second team next year.”With a mix of speed, power and good contact at the plate, the Wildcats will boast one of the scariest lineups in the area next year.“Looking at the team as a whole I knew last year that we had the pieces to put together a very good season,” Wells said. “I really am looking forward to what next year will bring with the largely the same group back and some solid pitching coming up.”

Chase Jones was selected to the all-state first team for his accomplishments as a catcher for Wright City this past season. Jones posted a career best .440 batting average.

Derrick Forsythe photo.