As the new head coach of the Wellsville-Middletown baseball team this spring, Alex Thull just wants to help the Tigers get back to their winning ways.

Last year, W-M won just two games after reaching the state quarterfinals in Class 1 the year before. It also had a streak of three consecutive winning seasons snapped.

“Last year was a rough year for us,” Thull said. “We really want to get back to where we know what we can do.”

The Tigers return 10 players from last year’s team, including a strong senior class of Dylan Alsop, CJ Curd, Mason Guzy, Lucas Moore, Kaleb Peak and Logan Pursifull.

Alsop was the Tigers’ lone all-Eastern Missouri Conference selection in 2022 after earning all-state honors the year before. Guzy, who will be playing baseball at Hannibal-LaGrange University next year, returns as pitcher. Pursifull is back after missing most of the 2022 season due to an ACL injury. Curd is back for his third year as starter, Peak returns as outfielder and Moore enjoyed a strong 2022 season that included a hit against Montgomery County.

“We are very senior heavy,” Thull said. “We have a lot of great leaders. We have some of the best kids that I have ever been around during my 12 years of coaching. They’re just good kids. They make good decisions, they work at their craft, they’re weight room warriors and they’re super coachable. It’s a fun group to be around.”

Juniors AJ Sherwood and Tristan Hill, sophomores Gage Marshall, Brennan Cash, Justin Beabout, Haskell Davis and Wyatt Moore and freshman Isaac Todd round out the team. Sherwood, Hill, Marshall and Cash got playing time with the varsity last year.

Thull worked as an assistant under Justin Caldwell last year. Before 2022, the Chicago-area native had no baseball coaching experience.

“I think I went in with expectations that baseball is a very serious sport,” said Thull, who is an assistant with the W-M boys basketball team. “It ended up being more fun than I thought it was. But it was definitely not fun losing. The boys felt that. They were good kids to be around. But the losing wears on you and the kids saw that. I think that the more we lost, the more they tried harder to win.”

The Tigers beat Clopton and Silex for their only victories and lost seven of their games by one run. Six of their games were canceled due to weather.

“I don’t think the kids ever gave up hope,” Thull said. “It’s just that we couldn’t piece it together at times. I felt like our hitting was streaking. We had a really good game, followed by some bad pitching. Then, we had some really great pitching, but no hitting to help it. It seemed like we never could put it all together. There were a lot of factors playing in. We had guys dual-sporting and practicing only two of three days a week. It was hard to get on a roll. With all of the rain, we were inside a lot, which hurt our hitting practice.”

W-M’s 2022 season ended with a 3-2, 10-inning loss to Glasgow in the Class 1, District 10 quarterfinals at Glasgow, denying the Tigers a chance to win their second straight district championship.

Thull said he’s confident his team will not come up short in districts again this year.

“Our sights are set on the district championship and working our way through,” Thull said.

Joining Thull on the coaching staff are Michael Lauer, who is from Bevier, and Jacob Peak, a 2015 W-M graduate.

The Tigers started their season on March 20 with a 7-3 loss to Community R-6. They bounced back with a 2-0 win over Clopton on March 24.