Memorial right fielder stepping up for Vipers
Wagner hitting .395 in senior season with Memorial
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Trent Wagner spent part of Memorial's practice on Thursday in an apartment parking lot looking for a baseball he hit over the Vipers' practice field fence.
Wind-aided or not, Wagner's hitting success hasn't been limited to batting practice.
"I've just been trying to do whatever they ask me to do to help the team," said Wagner, who is a senior in his first season at Memorial. "I'm hitting in the four-hole and hopefully I'm getting the job done for them. I need to get my bat going like I know I can, but I think it's going all right."
The right fielder is leading Memorial with a .395 batting average and has 12 RBI for the 5-11 Vipers.
"He's been a tremendous help for us," Memorial coach Manuel Alvarado said of Wagner who has hit four doubles and one homer through 16 games. "He's real fast and covers a lot of ground in the outfield. He's also one of our top offensive players, so there's really not too much more we could ask him to be doing."
Wagner is in his first season at Memorial after moving over from St. Joseph. He played football, soccer and baseball for the Flyers but has focused on baseball for the Vipers.
"He's taking a leadership role by saying positive things in our meetings at the end of practice," Alvarado said. "It seems like he's fit in from the first day with us. He knows the game and is an all-around baseball player."
Wagner said he's enjoyed playing for Memorial and thinks the team has a lot of potential.
"We should be doing a lot better than we are," Wagner said. "We feel like we are the best team in the district, we just have to start playing like it.
"We can get down sometimes, but we've been good about picking each other up to get going again. We have good pitching, defense and hitting, but we need to start putting it all together."
Along with making the playoffs and advancing in them, Wagner has the goal of playing college baseball. He said there are some options out there for him, but that nothing is set.
For now, he's focused on the task at hand.
"Making adjustments pitch by pitch has been something I've tried to do all season," Wagner said