McDaniel baseball enjoying turnaround season behind veteran crew

Published 2:39 pm Wednesday, April 23, 2025

By Austin White

Winning isn’t easy, and it’s a lesson the McDaniel High School baseball team has become well versed in over the years.

The Mountain Lions went 16-59 overall from 2022-2024 along with a 9-42 mark in the PIL. In 2023, McDaniel went 3-23 overall and 0-18 in league play.

For the six remaining seniors of the 2025 class and the six juniors that make up the 2026 class, they’ve been around for most of those Ls as the program started fresh in 2022 by starting the young crew.

While the losses have hurt, the Mountain Lions are now seeing the fruit of their labor with a 9-6 record in 2025 and a 2-2 start to league play.

Those calluses formed from the defeats have become reminders of what it takes to win and how the Mountain Lions don’t want that feeling any longer.

“Losing a lot of games freshman, sophomore, junior year, you start to develop a little chip on your shoulder,” McDaniel senior Owen Sonne said. “You don’t want to lose anymore. It feels good to start to prove some people wrong.”

Sonne has been at the forefront of the turnaround with a team-high batting average of .414, the third best mark among PIL hitters this season.

More importantly, he gets on base, as seen by a .629 on-base percentage, which is the best in the PIL.

On top of that, he’s got 17 RBis (leads the PIL), 15 runs scored (second in the PIL) and nine stolen bases (tied for second in the PIL).

He’s truly become a five-tool type player for the Mountain Lions in the infield, and one who has set the example for the program moving forward.

“(Sonne is) one of the hardest workers I’ve ever been around at the high school level,” McDaniel head coach Chase Franks said. “He’s a gym rat, loves working out. On top of that, he’s always trying to sneak in extra cuts when he can, asking coaches to hit him extra fun-gos. I couldn’t say enough good things about the kid and it’s nice to see it finally pay off for him.”

Sonne is far from alone, as seen by fellow senior Cody Brewer, who is the only player in the PIL with more runs than Sonne. Brewer has touched home 18 times this season and is also tied for first in stolen bases with 10.

“Cody Brewer does everything correct,” Franks said. “Don’t have to ask him twice to do anything. He’s the first one to grab a bucket, first one to ask if you need help.”

The senior leadership doesn’t end there as Jackson DeYoung minds the plate as the starting catcher and Sam Robison is a vocal leader for the squad in the infield. Santana Apodaca and Jack Burrell round out the 2025 class.

As for the juniors, Lowan Ouska is second on the team in RBIs with 12 and has an OBP of .500 to help provide some traffic on the base paths. Ouska also has the most innings pitched with 20 and owns a 4.20 ERA with 16 strikeouts.

Junior James Ruona-Banister has been lights out in a smaller sample size. He’s got 11.2 innings pitched this season, but has a 0.60 ERA with 11 strikeouts.

In the second game against Franklin after going up 12-2, the Mountain Lions gave up an eight spot to put the Lightning back in it down 12-10 in the fifth.

Ruona-Banister came in to shut the rally down though, allowing only one baserunner in the final two innings to preserve the 12-10 victory.

“(Ruona-Banister) came in, shut it down, he’s got some dog,” Sonne said. “We trust him in those situations and that’s why his number was called.”

Getting to 12 runs certainly helps as well, which Sonne had five RBIs that day and junior Emmett Letson was right behind with four RBIs off of two singles.

The offense has shown to have some thump with 96 runs scored this season, the most in the PIL and equates to an average of 7.2 per game.

“My freshman year, I think we had eight freshmen start on varsity,” Sonne said. “These are guys we’ve played together with for three years now. It’s finally coming together for us in a sense. Still got some things to tune up of course, but I like where we’re at.”

This week, the PIL slate continues with two games against Ida B. Wells, starting at 5 p.m. April 29 at Wells followed by game two at 5 p.m. April 30 at McDaniel. Then it’s a 4 p.m. matchup May 2 at home against Grant to round out the week.

McDaniel enters April 26 sitting at No. 32 in the OSAA rankings with 32 teams qualifying for the state playoffs. The Mountain Lions haven’t been since 2016.

But no one on McDaniel is thinking that far ahead. Right now, it’s all about continuing the process that has set it up for a memorable 2025 campaign and beyond.

“It’s all on the kids, this is a special group,” Franks said. “To be able to watch these kids grow – a lot of them have been playing varsity since their freshman year, taking their lumps – it’s amazing to see them enjoy it and they deserve it.”

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