Senior’s sacrifice benefits Heritage baseball team

Going into his fourth year as a starter for the Colleyville Heritage baseball team, Connor Kroutil would do anything to help get his team back to the playoffs.

To plug into a new position and allow for the Heritage lineup to be as powerful as possible, Kroutil moved from shortstop to second base and never blinked.

Now, with the regular season finished and the playoffs awaiting – this year with the Panthers included – Kroutil is happy with the results.

As the season began, Kroutil said the team’s goals were to obviously get back into the playoffs and personally, to do everything he could to help the team accomplish the postseason objective.

Ground balls to second base are a bit more infrequent, Kroutil said, noting he went through a four-game stretch without an opportunity to make a defensive play.

The preparation is about the same, though, he said.

“A ground ball is a ground ball. You see a few more choppers,” Kroutil said. “You have more time and I can take a couple of steps before I need to throw it (to first).”

Kroutil said many of his fellow seniors have played together not just on the varsity squad, but also as members of a select team.

Even though Kroutil said he’s not a vocal leader, the younger members of the team seem to take heed of his leadership by example.

“There are a couple of guys more vocal than me,” he said.

But when he does talk, the team listens.

Kroutil said his strength is his defense, but his production at the plate has come around.

Not overly fast, Kroutil said his consistency and doing whatever is needed by the team is what drives him to get on base.

“I’m a contact hitter,” he said. “This has been one of my better years hitting.”

Asked about his batting average, Kroutil was quick to admit he doesn’t follow that statistic very closely.

“I avoid looking at that as much as possible,” Kroutil said. “My mental confidence might start changing so I avoid it at all costs.”

All the pieces are coming together for Kroutil, regardless of whether he knows his own stats.

In addition to the Panthers entering the playoffs this week as the district’s third seed, Kroutil will be playing for Howard Junior College in Big Spring next year.

Looking back now over his last regular season, Kroutil said the season went about as he had envisioned.

“We’re where we thought we’d be, maybe with a few losses more than we’d thought,” he said. “We thought we’d be in the playoffs and that’s where we are.”

What has stood out for Kroutil about the year has been the team chemistry.

“It’s really helped us to do well this year. We don’t have all the (Division I) commits like others in the district, but we all have the same common goal. When we put it together, it comes together really well,” Kroutil said.

“It feels good to be back.”

This story was originally published May 2, 2016 at 4:25 PM with the headline "Senior’s sacrifice benefits Heritage baseball team."