2024 Southeast Tropics load up on arms for another World Series run

If the adage regarding a baseball team going as far as its pitching can take it, then the Southeast Tropics are in a pretty good position to repeat as the Babe Ruth World Series champions in August.

“I’m really excited about our pitching,” veteran Tropics manager Dustin Schwartz said in looking ahead to this summer’s roster. “It may be our deepest staff yet.”

The Tropics open the 2024 summer season on Saturday with a round-robin tournament at Kelly High School, in which they play at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.

The team surprised a lot of people last August with its championship run in the World Series, and a lot of the players who were pivotal in that title run, are back this summer.

“We return such a big part of our core (group) from last year,” Schwartz said. “It is just such a big chunk of that core, and they're all still bought into the idea of we are going for a repeat.”

Schwartz will have at his disposal Ross Peters, who was a huge part of the Hawks winning this spring's MSHSAA Class 3 District 2 title with a stunning upset of a 29-win Scott City team.

In addition to Peters, Peters’ teammate at Kelly, Dalton Forck, who will play at Three Rivers College in the fall, will be available, as will former Oran standout Kolten Payne, who now pitches at St. Charles Community College.

The high school program at Portageville High School has been as successful as any throughout Southeast Missouri over the past five seasons, and the arms of Trey Benthal, Mason Adams, and Beau-Hunter Warren have played massive roles in that success. All three will be on this summer’s Tropics roster.

“So, the biggest thing is,” Schwartz explained of managing his rotation, Is that a lot of these guys have pitched a ton of innings in high school (and college). They are all high school aces, so they're really showing a lot of that for their high school team.

At the beginning of the year, we actually try to rest some of these guys, and we use some other guys.”

Schwartz also added recent Jackson High School graduate, Carson McDaniel, who will throw at Mineral Area Community College in the fall.

“We want their arms to be healthy for August,” Schwartz said. “We're not looking to work these guys now. We play such a long summer season, it's OK to rest them.

“We might not get as many innings from them in June as we may want, but come August, they'll be ready to go, and they'll be fully rested.”

Following Saturday’s games, the Tropics will visit Paragould (Ark.) Legion on Tuesday at 5 p.m. before battling rival Charleston Fighting Squirrels in a doubleheader on June 6 at 6 p.m in a doubleheader.

“The new guys are coming in,” Schwartz said, “the people who weren't a part of the World Series last year, they saw it on TV, and they saw it in the news, and they want to be a part of that. too.”