The baseball tradition at Bethel High School is rich, and seems to be near the top of their conference every year. For the 2016 version of the Bees, they expect that tradition to continue as they open their season early next week hoping to use a number of seniors to lead the way to another solid season.

“We lost some good players, but we do have eight seniors back, including some with good experience,” said Bethel coach Brett Brookhart. “I look for us to be competitive, and we want to finish in the top half of the Cross County Conference.”

“We have some spots to fill, and the weather has been horrible for us to get to work on those spots. Hopefully, some guys can step up for us, and our pitchers, who haven’t pitched in many varsity games before, can step up and do the job.”

Leading the way for the Bees will be senior Tyler Brookhart, who will pitch and play first base for the Bees. The senior was 5-1 last season with a 1.12 earned run average. He was second-team all-area, and hit .424 at the plate.

“We have a good number one pitcher back to lead the way,” coach Brookhart said. “He mostly relies on three pitches; fastball, curve and change-up, and he throws a lot of strikes. He will keep them off balance.”

Zach Cohee is also back in centerfield. Cohee had 24 steals last year and batted .385, earning second-team all-conference.

“Zach is one to make things happen out there on offense,” Brookhart said.

Another familiar face back for the Bees will be behind the plate, as three-year catcher Riley Shaffer has good experience as a catcher. Brookhart is anticipating a solid year from Shaffer.

Sam McKenny also returns as one of the top pitchers for the Bees.

“He threw for us last year, and can play in the outfield,” Brookhart said. “I expect him to be one of our top three pitchers this year. He’s a leftie and won’t strikeout a lot of guys, but he will throw strikes so we have to play defense.”

Although he didn’t play last year, senior Nick Lightcap also looks to contribute for us this year at first base,” Brookhart said. “He should be one of the top hitters as well.”

Christian White is a junior and is expected to be a key pitcher, along with a middle infielder and outfielder.

“He is a jack-of-all-trades,” Brookhart said. “He could be our number two pitcher. He is one of our better hitters coming back (.320 last year), and we expect a lot from him.”

Also back is their likely cleanup hitter Hunter Shelley, who is a strong power hitter for the Bees.

Other players expected to make contributions for the Bees include seniors Luke Kelley (outfield), Dimitri Reed (catcher, infield) and Devon Truman (outfield); junior Brandon Gilbert (infield, pitcher); sophomores Tyler Brueckman (infield, outfield) and Ben Lawson (infield, pitcher). Also freshman Kenton Egbert looks to make a difference as one of top pitchers and infielders.

Brookhart says Arcanum and Tri County North are the favorites to challenge for a conference title.