{"id":2442682,"date":"2019-04-08T23:04:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-09T05:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-basalt-baseball-getting-into-gear-with-new-coaches\/"},"modified":"2019-04-08T23:04:00","modified_gmt":"2019-04-09T05:04:00","slug":"aspen-basalt-high-baseball-teams-getting-into-gear-with-new-coaches-after-snowy-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-basalt-high-baseball-teams-getting-into-gear-with-new-coaches-after-snowy-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen, Basalt high baseball teams getting into gear with new coaches after snowy start"},"content":{"rendered":"
Aspen High School junior Jack Pevny, No. 13, makes a tag on a Steamboat Springs base runner in a game Monday, April 8, 2019, at Crawford Field in El Jebel. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times).<\/strong>
Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It wasn\u2019t long ago that Crawford Field in El Jebel was covered in snow. This being where the Aspen High School baseball team practices and plays its home games, about the only real time spent playing outdoors early this season came in games either in Grand Junction or Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything that should be routine, it\u2019s so much harder in the gym. It really does make a big difference,\u201d AHS junior Jack Pevny said from practice last week. \u201cThis spring has been pretty bad. It was snowing a lot. I think we only got outside once or twice before we played. That was tough, but now hopefully things are clearing up and I think this is a really good team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed the weather has made a turn toward spring this past week, causing the snow to melt and allowing the Skiers to play their first home game of the season on Monday, an 8-2 loss to Steamboat Springs. AHS led 2-1 after five innings, but squandered an all-around good pitching performance by Pevny with a lack of hitting when they needed it.<\/p>\n

Now 0-7 overall, Aspen hopes to get some consistency going with a young team. Last spring was one of the best in AHS baseball history, with the senior-laded squad going 16-5 overall and even earning a postseason win. This spring the Skiers are starting from scratch with an inexperienced albeit talented bunch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe future is bright,\u201d AHS coach Brian Bradford said. \u201cWe are going to hit some road bumps here this season, as far as learning. We just have to learn to play as a team. The weather didn\u2019t help us this season, but I think once we get into our league, we will compete.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the roster saw a bit of an overhaul, the coaching staff remained intact, if not altered. Former head coach Dave Fuentes, who remains on staff as an assistant, stepped aside to allow for more time to spend watching his kids compete this spring. His son, Jamison Fuentes, was among those AHS seniors a year ago and now pitches for Adams State in Alamosa.<\/p>\n

Bradford, who grew up in Denver and played collegiately at Northern Colorado, had been an AHS assistant these past few years under Fuentes and was excited to take over the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cAspen has been great. The town of Aspen, the families, the people, they support you. It would be really nice to build a program,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cA lot of times we have teams come through that are good, but we want to have a program that is consistent and steady every year. The only way to do that is to put your roots in and dig in.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea is to build up a strong summer program to get area baseball players on par with those on the Front Range. This year\u2019s varsity squad has a near non-existent senior class and a lot of freshmen to work with.<\/p>\n

They certainly hope to compete for a postseason spot this spring, but also want to maintain the foresight to build something special over the next few years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe literally lost all nine starters, essentially. We have similar talent out here, but they haven\u2019t learned to play as a team yet, and that is games,\u201d Bradford said. \u201cI believe in the school, I believe in the kids and the program, and I think if we put in the work we will get there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next up for Aspen is a home game with Battle Mountain on Thursday afternoon, weather permitting. Snow is forecast for the area later this week.<\/p>\n

BASALT BASEBALL ALSO BUILDING WITH NEW COACH<\/p>\n

Much like Aspen, the Basalt High School baseball team handed the reins to a former assistant this season. Robert Smith, a native of California, took over for Nate Grinzinger, who only spent one season with the Longhorns.<\/p>\n

A longtime umpire and coach, the 33-year-old Smith has been in the Roaring Fork Valley for seven years and looks forward to building baseball\u2019s identity in the community. He was a Longhorn assistant to Grinzinger last spring.<\/p>\n

\u201cNate stepped down to be a little more family oriented, and my schedule allowed me to do it,\u201d Smith said. \u201cCoaching is definitely where I feel I can thrive the most. I get to be hands on with the kids, talking with them, sharing the knowledge and the things I learned throughout my baseball career. And I like to have fun doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Basalt is 0-2 this season, having lost to Hotchkiss (7-0) and Elizabeth (10-2) prior to spring break. As with the Skiers, the Longhorns spent most of their practices indoors early on this season.<\/p>\n

Another relatively young team, BHS is scheduled to play a doubleheader at Battle Mountain today before, weather permitting, hosting Rifle on Thursday in its home opener.<\/p>\n

acolbert@aspentimes.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aspen High School junior Jack Pevny, No. 13, makes a tag on a Steamboat Springs base runner in a game Monday, April 8, 2019, at Crawford Field in El Jebel. (Photo by Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times).Austin Colbert\/The Aspen Times It wasn\u2019t long ago that Crawford Field in El Jebel was covered in snow. This being […]<\/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":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2442682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-16 10:11:40","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":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2442682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2442682\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2442682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2442682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2442682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}