The Jefferson City Renegades have again cast a wide net in search of talent to fill their roster.
Ahead of tonight's MINK League season opener at Ozark, the roster features players from as far south as Puerto Rico and Baton Rouge, La., as far north and east as Pontiac, Mich., and as far west as Wilton, Calif.
But there is also a strong Mid-Missouri presence on the roster, and nowhere is that more clear than the pitching staff, where 13 of the 17 players are from Missouri and nine are from the Highway 63/54 corridor.
Mid-Missouri has historically been well-represented at the state baseball tournament, which wraps up this weekend in O'Fallon, and was again this season, with St. Elizabeth and Blair Oaks winning state titles, Fatima finishing runner-up to Blair Oaks and Helias making the Final Four.
The Renegades are hoping to capitalize upon, and help build, that talent.
"We're one of the few teams that gets high school kids," Renegades coach Mike DeMilia said Wednesday. "Most people want to go to the other end and get a bunch of seniors in college. I'd rather get some high school kids."
One of the local pitchers, Connor McKenna (Helias High School), will start the Renegades' home opener at 7 p.m. Saturday against the Clarinda A's at Vivion Field, which has so far been safe from the flooding. West Plains native Dylan Dunbar will start tonight's game at Ozark, and Tyler Robbins, who was a closer at Central Methodist this past season, will start Sunday's 2 p.m. game against Clarinda as the Eagles hope to work Robbins into a starting role next season.
McKenna, who pitched 49 innings as a true freshman at Truman State, said he is excited to be back in Jefferson City and have Austin Fennewald, his batterymate at Helias, catching him again.
"I'm not really sure what I'll be facing yet, but I just want to go out and leave my team in a position to win every time I pitch," McKenna said. "Just win some games.
"It should be a fun summer."
DeMilia said he wasn't set on a rotation after the first three arms, but said he was considering Peyton Leeper (South Callaway High School) to start after Robbins.
With a relative lack of starting experience, pitch counts will be a factor, at least early in the season, as DeMilia, pitching coach John Cavness and bullpen coach Caleb Thomas see who can pitch longer outings.
"Get everybody on the mound, figure out what we have, and guys will go into roles that we need them to," DeMilia said. "We'll fit in as they pitch more. But also, throwing three, four, five pitchers a night might keep the hitters off-balance too, so I think we can use it to our advantage."
The bullpen struggled with consistency for much of the 2018 season, and the Renegades allowed by far the most runs (336) and earned runs (283) as a pitching staff, putting up a 6.93 ERA. Joplin was the next closest, allowing 293 runs and 248 earned runs, a 6.26 ERA.
Jefferson City led the league in strikeouts by two with 336, but also walked the most batters, 248.
That is something DeMilia was well aware of when constructing this season's roster, and his plan this season is to rely less on power and more on finesse and control.
"Got to throw strikes. That was our biggest problem last year," DeMilia said. "We had some live arms, we led the league in strikeouts, but we didn't throw strikes. Hopefully this group will be a little better about that. I thought we had some good arms last year, but we just didn't do what we needed to have success as a pitching staff.
"We may not have as live of arms this year, but if we throw more balls over the plate, we're going to be more successful."