A tall order awaits Shannon Wells during his first year as Wright City’s head baseball coach.The Wildcats graduated three players who went on to pursue college careers, indicating the amount of talent lost from last season’s Eastern Missouri Conference championship team.Replacing leadership will be pivotal, but Wells is confident in the remaining pieces from last year’s breakthrough crew.“Last year’s team was senior-laden, but I think we’ve got a good foundation to build on,” said Wells. “We’re going to go through some growing pains, but there are enough guys remaining from last year to offset the new blood we having coming in.”The Wildcats will be relying heavily upon senior Austin Marsh for leadership, as he will serve in multiple capacities.He, along with Dallas Deroy and Kyle Lang, are the most experienced among a group of five seniors.Marsh returns the team’s highest batting average, hitting .333 a year ago with 20 base knocks and seven RBIs.“His primary role will be shortstop, but we will be counting on him to come in and close games as well,” said Wells.Deroy and Lang will also pitch, returning with limited experience on the mound.“We have to rebuild our pitching staff a little bit,” said Wells.Deroy batted .256 with 11 hits and eight RBIs a year ago.“He’s a crafty lefty with a nice curve ball who keeps the ball around the plate,” said Wells.Devin Telkamp, who will serve a primary role at third base, may also be called to pitch.Sophomore Kyle Tuepker may also pitch and will be a regular at second base when not on the mound.“He has pretty good velocity on his curve ball,” said Wells. “He’s still learning the position, but he’s looked good so far.”Tyler Brittain may also help out with the pitching duties.Wells says several positions haven’t been locked in during the preseason.“We’re going to be doing a lot of platooning,” said Wells.At catcher, the Wildcats return starting sophomore Andrew Pfuhl, with Chase Jones also being considered as an option.Chase Abercrombie is expected to play first base, while Telkamp or Justin Bote will handle third base.“The outfield will depend a lot upon who’s pitching,” said Wells.He is expecting newcomer Troy Muse to make an impact in left field.Brent Hughes is another fresh face on varsity who can provide help in the outfield.Wells says the batting order is far from complete but anticipates Jones and Marsh to be near the top of the lineup, while Hughes’ speed will be used to steal bases.“We’ll definitely be playing a lot of small ball this year,” said Wells.He says the Wildcats will rely on their defense until the offense can fall into a productive routine.“I think our strength is going to be in our defense,” said Wells. “If we have decent pitching we should be fine, because our defense will back them up.”He expects Wright City to finish around the middle of the pack in this year’s conference race, with Bowling Green being a favorite for the EMO title.“My goal for any of my teams is to always progress from game to game,” said Wells. “From a season aspect, we would like to get back to the district championship.”AUSTIN MARSHDerrick Forsythe Photo.