Community Corner

Coach Sucher Reflects on Clayton's Baseball Season

He spoke after an end-of-season banquet held Tuesday at Clayton High School.

*Editor's note: An earlier version of this article did not include Alex Breckenridge as a graduating senior on the Clayton baseball team. This article has been updated to include his name. The team is losing six graduating seniors.

The Clayton Greyhounds baseball team finished the 2011 campaign with a 10-16 mark, but coach Craig Sucher thinks there's much to be proud of.

“If you take eight knocks in a row like we did, it’s really easy to pack it up,” Sucher said on Tuesday night after an end-of-season baseball banquet at . “And with the school year coming to an end, there’s a lot of distractions for these guys. To be able to dig in and do more when they could do less was a real credit to them.”

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The Greyhounds had to endure an eight-game losing streak that started Apr. 20 with a 5-0 loss and was snapped May 11 with a 5-2 victory over St. Mary’s.

Clayton’s record flip-flopped from last year: The team finished 16-10 in 2010.

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The Greyhounds lose six* seniors to graduation this year: Dementral Cummings; Carter Ellston; Jack Ellston, who is Carter’s brother; Trevor Mills; Dominic Mena; and Alex Breckenridge*. The Greyhounds will return nine juniors: Freddy Barnes, Michael Buse, Noah Eby, Sam Fox, Kellen Green, Sam Horn, Jack Licata, Steven Paster and Jeremy Phillips.

The Greyhounds played well in the league, finishing with a 3-1 record in the Suburban East Conference and placed second behind Ladue. Affton, Berkeley, Jennings and Normandy placed behind Clayton.

Clayton had three first team All-Suburban East Conference selections: Chris Daughtery, Phillips and Mills. Daughtery, a sophomore, made the conference as a utility player. Daughtery hit .400 and finished the season with one home run and two doubles. Phillips, an outfielder, hit .423 and had six doubles and two triples. Mills, a pitcher, worked a total of 40 innings for Clayton this season and had a 3.33 ERA.

Three Greyhounds made the second team of the conference: Horn, Eby, and freshman Auggie Mense. Horn, a first-baseman, hit .270 this year. Eby, a pitcher, worked 34.3 innings for Clayton, compiled a 3-3 record and a 3.47 ERA. Eby also hit .288. Mense made the conference as a designated hitter. He finished the season with a .378 batting average and four doubles.  Clayton loses just one all-conference selection this year—Mills.

“We have a tremendous core coming back,” Sucher said. “We’re going to have to find a way to replace our seniors. We had some big innings from Jack Ellston and from Trevor Mills, who was a real work horse for us. Dominic Mena was a mainstay in right field for us defensively, offensively, and he had great speed. Carter Ellston played a really big second base for us. We need to find a way to replace them, and I think we have a lot of guys in the room who can do that.”


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