{"id":1310087,"date":"2019-05-08T23:32:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T05:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/roaring-fork-baseballs-dawson-kuhl-leads-rams-late-charge\/"},"modified":"2019-05-08T23:32:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T05:32:00","slug":"roaring-fork-baseballs-dawson-kuhl-leads-rams-late-charge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/roaring-fork-baseballs-dawson-kuhl-leads-rams-late-charge\/","title":{"rendered":"Roaring Fork baseball\u2019s Dawson Kuhl leads Rams\u2019 late charge"},"content":{"rendered":"
Roaring Fork senior Dawson Kuhl has put up some monster offensive numbers this season for the Rams. He’s currently top 5 in the 3A Western Slope League in a number of offensive statistics.<\/strong>
Josh Carney \/ Post Independent<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just a beast, man.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s how Roaring Fork veteran head coach Marty Madsen described senior Dawson Kuhl prior to a recent practice at Ron Patch Memorial Field.<\/p>\n

The stats back that up, too, for the senior standout, especially at the plate this season.<\/p>\n

Kuhl, a stalwart in the 3-hole for the Rams\u2019 baseball program, is hitting a team-leading .436 on the year with 24 hits (nine doubles, one triple, three home runs) and 22 runs batted in just 55 at-bats. Those gaudy numbers are good enough to rank in the top 5 in the 3A Western Slope League in nearly every category, which puts him on the same level with Delta\u2019s Rowyn Carmichael and Coal Ridge\u2019s Ryan Kotz, who also sit in the top 5 in nearly every offensive category in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you told me about those numbers, my first reaction was that I\u2019m not surprised,\u201d said Madsen. \u201cDawson isn\u2019t the biggest, strongest, or fastest, but he puts in the work and is committed to this game. When you do that, success will come. I\u2019m just so happy to see him succeeding like this because he\u2019s earned it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The talent has always been there for Kuhl, dating back to his freshman year,. But this year, in his final year with the Rams, Kuhl has ratcheted up his offensive output, being a workhorse in the middle of Roaring Fork\u2019s lineup under Madsen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI put a lot of work in during the offseason,\u201d said Kuhl. \u201cI\u2019d travel to Grand Junction every weekend to get work in at the indoor batting cage. That consistent work really helped me out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuhl certainly had the average last season when he hit .471 for the Rams, but this year the power has really developed for the big, burly, do-everything player for Roaring Fork. Some of that has to do with the development in the weight room, but Kuhl said a lot of it has to do with new Roaring Fork hitting coach Tanner Nieslanik, a former Roaring Fork player himself who went on to play college baseball at Colorado Mesa University.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast season, I was just trying to time up my swing and make contact,\u201d said Kuhl. \u201cI was just a big contact hitter looking to spray the ball all over the field. But this year, Tanner has come in and helped me see the inside half of the baseball, seeing the ball better overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve been trying to stay deep on the ball and see the ball deep into the zone. We worked on going oppo [opposite field] consistently. That\u2019s where my power is, going to right-center. That\u2019s been my specialty this year, and that\u2019s where I\u2019ve found my power source. It\u2019s been a lot of fun going up to the plate this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fellow senior Layne Crisp has batted in front of Kuhl for most of his high school career, and most times Crisp benefits from Kuhl\u2019s hits by scoring runs for the Rams. Being on the base paths when Kuhl is at the plate gives Crisp one of the best views in the ballpark for each at bat. While the extra-base power gets the headlines for Kuhl, Crisp says its something mostly unseen that has been the biggest difference in Kuhl\u2019s production this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s just so disciplined,\u201d said Crisp. \u201cTeams have tried to work around him, and he\u2019s content taking a walk, which helps us out. But he makes guys come to him, and when he does that, you can put all of your faith in him as a hitter because we know he\u2019s going to bring us home.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s quickly becoming that cerebral player that we\u2019ve been hoping for,\u201d added Madsen. \u201cHe knows he can probably hit every pitch thrown to him, but he\u2019s just so smart and so disciplined, and it\u2019s carried on through the rest of the lineup.\u201d<\/p>\n

The numbers are extraordinary for Kuhl, but that\u2019s not even the biggest impact he\u2019s made for the young Rams this season. The impact is one that can\u2019t be measured with stats, and it\u2019s one every team talks about needing: leadership.<\/p>\n

Four years ago, Kuhl was that wide-eyed freshman trying to cut it at the varsity level. Now, he\u2019s the varsity veteran setting an example for a roster filled with underclassmen in Carbondale.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been fun watching him grow, not only as a player, but as a young man,\u201d said Madsen. \u201cI\u2019ve watched him grow up since my wife had him in Kindergarten. It\u2019s pretty sweet to see all of the hard work, all of the days and hours he\u2019s put in paying off. It shows all the young guys, that if you work your butt off, you\u2019re going to have success.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s really shown the young guys how to carry themselves,\u201d added Madsen. \u201cHe shows the young guys how to have confidence in themselves; I wish I had him for another year to show the next group of freshman how to play at the varsity level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kuhl and the Rams have just three games remaining in the season, highlighted by a doubleheader Thursday at Ron Patch Memorial Field in Carbondale in 3A Western Slope League action against the Grand Valley Cardinals.<\/p>\n

The Rams need to win the three remaining games to have a shot at the 3A state playoffs.<\/p>\n

With Kuhl in the lineup swinging a scorching-hot bat, anything is possible.<\/p>\n

jcarney@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Roaring Fork senior Dawson Kuhl has put up some monster offensive numbers this season for the Rams. He’s currently top 5 in the 3A Western Slope League in a number of offensive statistics.Josh Carney \/ Post Independent \u201cHe\u2019s just a beast, man.\u201d That\u2019s how Roaring Fork veteran head coach Marty Madsen described senior Dawson Kuhl […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1310087","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 04:05:51","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310087","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1310087"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1310087\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1310087"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1310087"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1310087"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}